David S. Chamberlain ’52
David S. Chamberlain ’52, Ph.D., of Vero Beach, Florida, passed away on January 7, 2015. David was born in Boston and attended Brown & Nichols prep school in Boston. He received his degree in English at Dartmouth, where he participated in crew and was a member of the Theta Delta Chi. David was awarded a James B. Reynolds Scholarship for foreign study, enrolled at Oxford University in England and received his M.A. in English in 1954. While on a steamship to England he met his future wife, Ytsjelisck Witeveen, and they married two years later. David enrolled in the U.S. Navy after Oxford and served two years as a navigation officer during the Korean War. Following military service David began further graduate work at Princeton University and received his Ph.D. in medieval literature. In 1962, while still writing up his dissertation, David accepted a position as an assistant professor in the English department at the University of Iowa and, in 1975, he became a full professor of English at the university. In 1997 he retired after a 38-year career of teaching and research into medieval literature. After retiring David and Ytsjelisck moved to Florida, settling in Vero Beach. His wife of 60 years survives him, as do children Arjen, Stanley, Gregory, Austin, Willa and Iowa and their families, including 13 grandchildren. His brothers Everett ’50 and William also survive him. David’s father, Stanley, and his uncle, George, were both class of 1925.
