From the Princeton Office of Communications came the following: "David Coffin, a longtime faculty member in Princeton's Art and Archaeology Dept. who influenced generations of scholars with his authoritative research on Italian Renaissance garden and landscape design, died of heart failure Oct. 14, 2003."
Dave prepared at Greenwich [Conn.] High School. At Princeton he majored in art and archaeology, graduating with highest honors in humanities, and election to Phi Beta Kappa. He was a member of Whig-Clio and Court Club.
During WWII he served in the Army's European theater. His postgraduate studies were at Yale and Princeton, where he earned an MFA in 1947 and a PhD in 1954. After teaching fine arts at the U. of Michigan from 1947-49, Dave joined Princeton's faculty as lecturer in art and archaeology, becoming department chair in 1964.
Among other publications, he wrote two award-winning books, The Villa d'Este at Tivoli, 1961; and The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, 1979. His latest will be published in January 2004. He also earned many awards, including Princeton's Howard T. Behrman Award for distinguished achievement in the humanities.
To his survivors: his wife, Nancy; his daughters, Elizabeth Coffin-Allerhand and Lois Coffin Jenny; his sons, Peter and David; and eight grandchildren, his classmates extend sincere sympathies.
The Class of 1940