David S. North, internationally recognized authority on immigration policy, died on Friday April 26, 2024 at the age of 95. Son of the author Sterling North and Gladys North, David was born February 29, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Downers Grove, a Chicago suburb. When David was 14 years old, the family moved to Morristown, NJ. David graduated from Morristown High School, where he had been editor of the school paper. He went on to graduate magna cum laude in Politics at Princeton, where he was Managing Editor of the Prince. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Victoria University in New Zealand, where he received his Masters in Political Science.
David’s first career was in journalism, writing after college for the Newark Star-Ledger and much later life in life for the Fiji-based Pacific Islands Monthly. But early on he was actively engaged in New Jersey Democratic Party politics, first as an organizer and then as a candidate for the State Assembly and, in 1958, a candidate for the US Congress. This activism led to appointments in the Labor Department during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, where he began his life’s work studying labor markets and immigration. During this time he also served as Assistant to the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the landslide election of 1964.
Following his time in Government, David transitioned to what turned out to be a more than 55-year career in public policy. He frequently testified before Senate and House committees, and before federal immigration policy commissions. His analyses appeared in media outlets, including CNN, the Economist, and the International Labour Organization. Mr. North’s overseas research included projects for the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., the governments of Haiti and Australia. As an activist David advocated for a bill that eliminated a state income tax break for those with unearned income from foreign sources which cost him $1,000 a year personally, but netted the Commonwealth of Virginia as much as $10 million annually. From 2020 to 2024 he supported various political and civic efforts to support the African American community in Randolph County, a rural area in SW Georgia. This included a change in banking practices that netted the city of Cuthbert an extra $28,000 annually. David’s work ethic and lifelong passion for contributing to the public debate continued into his 95th year; after more than 2,700 blog posts over the previous 15 years, his last article for the Center for Immigration Studies’s website was published just one week before he died.
David is survived by his wife of 45 years, Ruth Blau, three sons from an earlier marriage, Gregory, Jeffrey, and Rodney; two step-children, Amy Robertson and Bruce Robertson; a sister, Arielle North Olson; three granddaughters; a step-granddaughter, a step-grandson, and a great-granddaughter.
In keeping with his environmental beliefs, he was cremated.
