Former John Jay College student magazine editor, Pat Ravalgi

Nov 3, 2020

You will often have seen David wearing a sweat shirt carrying the name – John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The college was the venue for his only press conference ahead of the sell-out concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1972.

Pat Ravalgi was Editor of The Individualist literary magazine and music editor of the LEX newspaper at the college – part of the City University of New York system – in the early 1970s.

She was the driving force behind the press conference and worked closely with David's publicists and record company representatives – especially those at RCA – to draw attention to David to an older audience as he pursued his solo career.

In a newspaper article in 1974, Pat observed: “No artist can go wrong when his direction comes from his own audience. Because the artist and audience are all that really does matter.”

After graduation, Pat was a publicist at Levinson Associates in New York where her clients included Shaun Cassidy and his record producer Michael Lloyd.

After working in public relations, Pat received her Masters Degree in International Relations from New York University. She spent the next 30 years as a professional staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives and an Intelligence Officer with several agencies within the U.S. government.

In our conversation Pat talks about how, as an ambitious student, she managed to secure an interview with David and the real story behind that t-shirt.