We at Goddard Riverside were saddened to learn about the passing of David Cully, our 2017 Gala honoree.
A lifelong book-lover, Cully worked his way up through Barnes & Noble, Simon & Schuster, Putnam Berkley Publishing Group, and Waldenbooks before becoming president of Baker & Taylor in 2017. But we will always remember him as the affable man who showed up to our Lincoln Square Early Childhood Education center to read to children.
Cully had worked as a teacher early in his career. As part of a pre-Gala visit to Goddard, he sat down and read several picture books with the children, showing off the illustrations, making animal noises and bantering with the class.
“With four- and five-year-olds you can see lights in their eyes, and new discoveries every moment,” he said later. “It’s just so exciting.”
Our condolences go out to Cully’s family and his many friends in the publishing industry.