David Vokes Mitchell, the former Point Reyes Light editor and publisher, died Oct. 25, 2023, the Pacific Sun reported. He was 79 and had Parkinson’s Disease.
The Light’s coverage of Synanon, the drug-rehabilitation program-turned-cult, earned The Light the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1979. Mitchell and then-wife Cathy had run the newspaper on a shoestring and were reluctant to even enter the contest. Many fellow publishers heralded The Light’s win for the “little guys.”
Mitchell sold The Light in 2005. Its current owners are David Briggs and Tess Elliott.
Elsewhere: He was a small-town newspaper editor who took on Goliath and won (Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle)
