http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/11/25/20101125Obit-DavidNolan1125.html
David F. Nolan, 66, Libertarian Party co-founder, dies
by Emma Brown - Nov. 25, 2010 12:00 AM
Washington Post
David F. Nolan, whose fierce belief in limited government, personal freedom and the free-market economy led him to band with a handful of like-minded friends to found the national Libertarian Party in 1971, has died. He was 66.
According to Mark Hinkle, chairman of the party's national committee, Nolan apparently had a stroke or heart attack while driving in Tucson on Saturday. He was found in his car and taken to a Tucson hospital, where he was pronounced dead early Sunday, Hinkle said.
The Libertarian Party has often been called the Party of Principle for its strict adherence to its ideals, even at the risk of alienating voters. It has advocated for limiting government in every sense, and its positions have included legalizing prostitution and drugs, removing restrictions on abortion and gay marriage, and ending U.S. involvement in foreign wars.
No candidate has ever won national office under the Libertarian Party banner.
The impetus for the new party was a national address by President Richard M. Nixon on Aug. 15, 1971. U.S. currency would no longer be pegged to the gold standard, Nixon announced, and the federal government would institute new wage and price controls to curb inflation.
Nolan, who had campaigned to repeal the federal income tax, considered himself a Republican until he watched Nixon's speech from his home in Colorado, surrounded by a group of friends. They saw the president's moves as an unconstitutional overreach of power.
Less than four months later, Nolan and seven others voted to form the national Libertarian Party.
David Fraser Nolan was born in Washington on Nov. 23, 1943.
He studied political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a student when Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., ran for president in 1964 on a platform of limited government.
Nolan worked in marketing and communications throughout his career.
After living in Colorado for about two decades, he relocated in the 1980s to Orange County, Calif., where he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2000.
He moved to Tucson several years later and in 2006, mounted another congressional campaign.
Most recently, he ran for U.S. Senate in this year's midterm election, receiving 4.7 percent of the vote in his loss to Republican incumbent John McCain.
Nolan's first marriage, to the former Susan Hoffman, ended in divorce.
He married Elizabeth Twilley in 1983. Besides his wife, survivors include a sister.
This is the Tribune article on David Nolan's death in Tucson
http://hosted2.ap.org/azmes/788acee4e023427bbfc19d9278ac9378/article_2010-11-26-obit-nolan/id-f818ad26700b480ca567175ac950f0f2
Nov. 26, 2010 6:32 PM ET
Co-founder of Libertarian Party dies in Arizona
MARK CARLSONMARK CARLSON, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — David F. Nolan, who co-founded the national Libertarian Party and helped guide it for four decades while remaining active in politics as a candidate, including a recent run for the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 66.
Nolan died Sunday in Tucson, where he lived, according to a statement released Friday by party.
His vehicle was found off the side of a roadway on Saturday evening, and emergency crews had to break in to help him, the party said. He died in a hospital the next day of unknown causes.
Nolan helped found the Libertarian Party with a group of colleagues in Colorado on Dec. 11, 1971. He remained a member of the Libertarian National Committee until his death.
"He not only helped found the Libertarian Party but remained active and helped to guide our party for the last 40 years," Mark Hinkle, chairman of the Libertarian Party, said in the statement. "We are now the third-largest political party in America, and one of the most persistent and successful third parties in American history, thanks in large part to David Nolan."
The party boasts 250,000 registered voters and, in describing itself as third-largest, includes the number of Libertarian candidates, the party's access to the ballot and its number of elected office holders.
Libertarians espouse limited government intervention in the economy, civil liberties and personal freedom, arguing that government's only role should be to help individuals protect themselves from force or fraud. The party pushes a non-interventional foreign policy, peace and free trade.
Nolan was active in Arizona politics and received nearly 5 percent of the vote this year as a Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican John McCain.
On his campaign website, Nolan called for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least a 50 percent cut in federal government spending and the repeal of the personal income tax. He also wanted to legalize drugs.
"While drug abuse is bad, the drug war is far worse," Nolan wrote. "Drug prohibition has been an outright policy failure."
During the campaign, Nolan said the most effective way to end border violence and cripple drug cartels was to decriminalize drugs.
In 2006, Nolan ran for the House in Arizona's 8th District against Gabrielle Giffords.
Wes Benedict, executive director of the Libertarian Party, told The Associated Press he felt a great loss with Nolan's death.
"We'll certainly miss him," Benedict said. "He had just become very active again in driving the party."
Before settling in Tucson, Nolan received a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for four decades in advertising, marketing and publishing.
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth. Funeral services are pending.
Source David Nolan dies at 66; founder of the Libertarian Party By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times November 26, 2010 David F. Nolan, whose disgruntlement with conventional politics — especially President Nixon's imposition of wage and price controls in 1971 — drove him to launch the Libertarian Party with a small group of friends, has died. He was 66. Nolan apparently was stricken while driving his car Saturday night in Tucson and was taken to a hospital, where he died Sunday, Libertarian Party Chairman Mark Hinkle said. The cause of death has not been determined. Nolan also was known for his invention of the Nolan Chart, a visual representation of political ideologies that classifies people according to their attitudes on personal and economic freedom, two of the principles Libertarians hold dear. "The chart made it easy to see how liberals, conservatives, populists and libertarians compared," Reason Foundation co-founder Robert Poole wrote in a blog post, "and was a true breakthrough that reshaped political analysis, polling and news reporting, helping to introduce 'libertarian' as a distinct political position." Conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. once derided libertarianism as "a kind of anarchy," with positions scattered all over the political map. [Well not really! Their is one position - You can do anything you want as long as you don't violate the rights of others] Libertarians favor civil rights but oppose government spending, they're pro-choice but anti-regulation. "The government's job is to protect you; beyond that," Nolan told the Tucson Citizen in 2006, "it's up to you." Four decades ago Nolan was an advertising executive active in the Young Republicans who was growing increasingly unhappy with Nixon. The disenchantment brought about a political identity crisis for Nolan, who found it perplexing to be allied with conservatives yet often agreeing with liberals. On Aug. 15, 1971, he was sitting in his Westminster, Colo., living room with several friends when the president appeared on television to announce that he was taking the U.S. off the gold standard and imposing a 90-day wage-and-price freeze to tame inflation. In Nolan's circle, the president's order was seen not as a welcome intervention but as an unwanted intrusion by the federal government. "We looked at each other and said, 'That does it,'" Nolan recalled in a 1996 interview with the Rocky Mountain News. "The Republicans, at least Nixon, no longer offered us any hope. At that moment we were galvanized into action to start a new party." On Dec. 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs, Nolan and his colleagues voted to form the Libertarian Party. It held its first convention in Denver in 1972 and began running candidates for office. In 1988, Ron Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas, ran as the Libertarian candidate for president. Nolan, who lived in California for almost 20 years starting in the late 1980s, ran for office several times himself, including an unsuccessful 2000 bid for Riverside's 47th Congressional District. This month he was the Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Arizona held by Republican John McCain, who handily defeated him. Born Nov. 23, 1943, in Washington, D.C., Nolan grew up in Maryland. He found his way to libertarianism as a youth through the writings of Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand. He became politically active as a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1960s. He belonged to the Young Republicans and was an avid supporter of Sen. Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. He earned a degree from MIT in 1965. Nolan, whose first marriage ended in divorce, is survived by his wife, Elizabeth. elaine.woo@latimes.com