David Chamberlain, retired professor of English at the University of Iowa, died Jan. 7, 2015, at 83.
In 1952, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Dartmouth. A scholarship then took him to Oxford, where he received a master’s degree. Returning to America, Chamberlain served for two years as a Navy air-navigation officer.
After military service, he enrolled in the Princeton graduate program in English, earning a master’s degree in 1961 and a Ph.D. in 1966. While still working on his dissertation, he accepted an appointment as an assistant professor of English at Iowa, where he spent his entire career, rising to the rank of full professor in 1975. After 38 years at Iowa, Chamberlain retired and moved to Vero Beach, Fla.
He was well-loved at Iowa for his excellence as an undergraduate teacher of Beowulf and other early classics. His erudite doctoral dissertation (“Music in Chaucer”), directed by the eminent Chaucerian D.W. Robertson, remains unpublished but available in the Princeton library. Medievalists value it as an underground encyclopedia of medieval literary and musicological lore.
He was active in Iowa politics, and was an accomplished carpenter and handyman.
Chamberlain is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ytsjelisck Witeveen Chamberlain; six children; and 15 grandchildren. He was predeceased by a son.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.