Robert David Armstrong ’61

David died June 20, 2025, in Texas after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

Born in Dallas, he came to us from Sugar Land High School. At Princeton, he majored in classics, writing his thesis on Sophocles and winning the Stinnecke Prize and the Robbins Prize. He was managing editor of the Nassau Lit and took his meals at Wilson Lodge. He roomed with Gordon Goodfellow and Michael McAshan.

After Princeton, David earned a Ph.D. in classics at the University of Texas, Austin, where he worked with renowned classicist William Arrowsmith. He then embarked on a teaching career in classics at that university, with several stints as a visiting professor at Princeton, where he relished teaching in some of the same rooms where he had been a student. He became friends with renowned ancient historian Peter Brown. He retired in 2006, remained in Austin, and continued his scholarly work even when gravely ill. His many publications ranged from Latin poetry to Hellenistic philosophy.

David is survived by his spouse, Marcos Jimenez; his sister, Peg; and his longtime friends in the class, Andras Hamori and John Cooper.