Tracy Kidder

March 25, 2026

It is with a heavy heart to announce that my dear friend Tracy Kidder has passed away.

I first met Tracy in Haiti in 2003, when he was working on his book Mountains Beyond Mountains. This was the story of Dr. Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl, and the founding of Partners In Health. To this day, when a business person asks me for my favorite book on entrepreneurship, I tell them to read this book.

I became close to another of Tracy's subjects, Deogratias Niyizonkiza, who I got to visit in his rural Burundi as he was founding Village Health Works.

Finally, it was a great pleasure of mine to introduce Tracy to Dr. Jim O'Connell, who became the subject of Tracy's recent book, Rough Sleepers.

I first read Soul of a New Machine when I worked at Data General around 1985 - that one book made me really want to become an engineer, and Tracy's later books made me want to become an activist. I now serve on eight nonprofit boards, including PIH, VHW, and the More Homes Coalition (Winter Walk) with Dr. Jim.

It is a great understatement to say that Tracy changed my life.

See also The Atlantic.