David S. Hodes ’63

David, whose proudest professional accomplishment was contributing to a clinical study showing that treating HIV-infected pregnant women with anti-retroviral agents could prevent passing the virus to their babies, died Nov. 9, 2020, peacefully at home in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., of cancer.

He came to us from Manhasset (N.Y.) High School, where he wrestled and was co-valedictorian. He wrote for The Daily Princetonian, belonged to Cloister Inn, and won the McCosh Prize in the philosophy department. He went to Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and then to Harvard Medical School. Next was pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he met his future wife, a fellow pediatrician. 

Then came training at the National Institutes of Health, teaching at Columbia, a professorship in pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine with 15 years as chief of pediatric infectious diseases, and six with Roche Laboratories. He published more than 50 scientific papers and book chapters.

David enjoyed classical music, golf, political essays, military history, spectator sports, gourmet cooking, cello lessons, amateur sculpting, writing letters to the editor, and crossword puzzles.

Survivors include his wife, Dr. Cynthia Miller; daughters Dr. Laura Dove ’92, a psychiatrist, and Elizabeth Hodes ’99, an artist; granddaughter Sophie Dove; and sister Ruth Rabin.