David W. Noble ’48

David died March 11, 2018, in St. Paul, Minn. He was 92. David was a professor of American and intellectual history at the University of Minnesota, with one of the longest careers on that faculty. He authored 10 books and was working on an 11th when he died.

David grew up in New Jersey on a dairy farm near Princeton and did his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin.

His vigorous opposition to the Vietnam War provoked considerable government surveillance.

An academic colleague noted: “Dave was able to integrate the humanities and literature into a history of ideas [using the] attitudes and lives of ordinary human beings, not only the great shakers and thinkers.” He supervised about 100 doctoral dissertations.

David was predeceased by his first wife, Lois. He is survived by his second wife, Gail; their two daughters; and a son with Lois.