Linowes, David F. 1917-2007 (David Francis Linowes, David Linowitz)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born March 16, 1917, in Freehold (some sources cite Trenton), NJ; died of a stroke, October 29, 2007, in Chevy Chase, MD. Economist, certified public accountant, business executive, government official, educator, and author. Linowes (whose birth name was Linowitz) had an active career as a certified public accountant and as a partner in a succession of accounting, auditing, management, and investment firms, first in the nation's capital, then in New York City. He also spent many years as a professor of economics, political economy, and public policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, New York University, and other institutions. At the same time Linowes served his country in several capacities at the federal level. One of his major contributions emerged from his position as chair of the Federal Privacy Protection Study Commission in the 1970s, a body formed in the wake of the Watergate scandal to address the protection of personal information collected and held by both the government and the private sector. The report of his commission did not result in substantial changes to U.S. law or policy, but it did serve as a reference for policy-makers in Canada and Europe. Linowes expressed his concern for privacy issues for the rest of his life, particularly in the rapid expansion of the computer society. He also chaired other federal studies throughout the 1980s, including commissions dealing with natural energy and with the privatization of government service agencies such as the postal service. Linowes wrote several books, including The Corporate Conscience (1974), Privatization: Toward More Effective Government (1988), Privacy in America: Is Your Private Life in the Public Eye? (1989), Creating Public Policy: The Chairman's Memoirs of Four Presidential Commissions (1998), and Living through Fifty Years of Economic Progress with Ten Presidents: The Most Productive Generation in History, 1946-1966 (2000).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Linowes, David F. Creating Public Policy: The Chairman's Memoirs of Four Presidential Commissions, Praeger (Westport, CT), 1998.

PERIODICALS

Washington Post, November 1, 2007, p. B7.