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David Magee
Bestselling Author of the Award-Winning Book Dear William
Bio
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David Magee is the bestselling author of the award-winning book Dear William: A Father’s Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, Love and Loss (2021), a Publisher’s Weekly national bestseller featured on CBS Mornings, and other non-fiction works including How Toyota Became #1 (Penguin), a bestseller in India. He is a frequent educational and motivational speaker, an award-winning columnist and TEDx presenter, and a changemaker in student mental health and substance use disorder.
Called “breathtakingly brilliant,” Dear William reveals how David and his family were completely shattered by addiction, losing nearly everything, but he and two of three children found long-term recovery, and his marriage, family and career saved minus their son William, who died of an accidental overdose. A creator and director of operations of the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing at the University of Mississippi, named after his late son, David is a sought-after speaker in schools and universities, addressing students and parents about mental health and substance misuse challenges and solutions. He’s a National Recovery Advocate for the Integrative Life Network.
David has been a daily newspaper and magazine editor and publisher, small business owner, a regular guest on CNBC, and once hosted a national cable TV and radio program — The David Magee Show. As an author, he’s studied and written with access about such brands as John Deere, Ford Motor Company, Louisville Slugger, General Electric and the Dallas Cowboys. But the story in David’s latest book Dear William, about his search for identity (as an adoptee), he and his family’s addiction and recovery, overcoming an unusual cancer diagnosis, and finding joy and purpose amid it all, is what shapes his mission of working to change, improve and even save lives in this age of mental health and substance use disorder crisis.
He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
