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Pulitzer-winning editor, Dave Mitchell, dies at 79

by Ben Stocking November 8, 2023November 8, 2023

From the comfy perch of an easy chair he inherited from his father, Dave Mitchell watched the procession of wildlife outside his picture window in the final months of his life. Parkinson’s disease compromised his movement and balance before his death in October. (Ben Stocking / Point Reyes Light)

Dave Mitchell, a hard-nosed newsman with a soft heart who won journalism’s highest honor for dogged reporting on a cult in his rural weekly’s backyard, died in his Point Reyes Station home on Oct. 26 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was one month shy of his 80th birthday.

Mr. Mitchell, the publisher and editor of the Point Reyes Light for 27 years, won the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service in 1979 for his…