David S Nivison

Stanford philosophy Professor Emeritus David Nivison died at age 91 on Oct. 16 2014. Nivison taught at Stanford from 1948 to 1988, dividing his time among the departments of Philosophy, East Asian Languages and Cultures and Religious Studies. Nivison was born on Jan. 17, 1923, in Farmingdale, Maine. In 1944, he married Cornelia Green, and they had four children. She died in 2008. His undergraduate years at Harvard were interrupted by World War II; he served as a Japanese translator in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Nivison graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1946 with a BA in Far Eastern languages. He went on to earn an MA and PhD in Far Eastern languages from Harvard in 1953. Nivison is survived by two daughters, Louise McCoy of Pettigrew, Ark., and Helen T. Nivison, of Ithaca, N.Y.; and two sons, David G. Nivison of Soquel and James N. Nivison of Los Altos; six granddaughters, Joanna, Marina, Audrey, Camilla, Chelsea and Maya; and a great-grandson, Noah.