Alan Bock, the Orange County Register's beloved voice of libertarianism, has passed away of cancer at his home in Lake Elsinore. Bock published a farewell column to readers in March which the Weekly noted in our Navel Gazing blog on March 29.
The sad news of Bock's passing came via an email to Register staffers from Cathy Taylor, the paper's vice president of opinion and commentary which was published on the Register's website yesterday.
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“Liberty Loses a Friend: In Memory of Alan Bock” is the headline of the article that includes Taylor's post. “Alan was our touchstone for explaining and holding to the purest of libertarian principles, which he would not trim or shade to fit a pragmatic political end,” Taylor wrote. “He was our mediator in many an editorial board meeting, able to nimbly argue or acknowledge the other side, and leave his opponent feeling at least respected, if not wholly persuaded to a freer point of view.”
According to Taylor, the Register will be celebrating his work through published reminiscences by friends and colleagues in the coming days.
As fans of Bock's trenchant editorials over the years, we at the Weekly will miss Bock's voice of reason and offer our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).