David Goodman ’64

David died April 6, 2023, at home.

He came to Princeton from Midwood High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. After spending the first half of freshman year at Princeton, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Brooklyn College and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley. He then served for several years as an assistant professor of biochemistry at Rutgers.

While there, David earned a master’s degree in library science, which led to positions in the libraries at Brooklyn College and then Princeton, where from 1978 to 2002 he served successively as librarian for chemistry and biology before appointment as research librarian and biological sciences bibliographer. His research interests included library user studies, the structure of scientific information, and electronic journal publishing. In 2002, he was appointed associate professor at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at Long Island University while retaining a part-time position with Princeton’s Library.

In retirement, David volunteered as a Wikipedia editor and administrator. He was an ardent advocate for a free and open internet as a road to empowerment and democracy.

David is survived by his wife, Esther; daughter Eve; son-in-law Jonathan; grandson Simon; and other family members, to whom the class offers its condolences.