DAVID F. TRASK ’51

DAVID F. TRASK, a historian who specialized in U.S. diplomatic and military history, and who taught at Wesleyan from 1958 to 1962, died Feb. 5, 2017, at age 87. He was a member of Kappa Nu Kappa and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After receiving his degree with high honors and with high distinction in history, he received a master’s degree from Harvard University. He served in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1954 and then received a PhD in history from Harvard University in 1958. He taught at Boston University, Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was the author of Victory Without Peace, The War With Spain, and numerous other scholarly treatises and articles. Following his academic career, he worked for the federal government, first as the historian for the U.S. Department of State and later as chief historian for the Department of the Army, before retiring in 1988. His wife, Elizabeth Brooks Trask, died in 1997. Two children and four grandchildren survive.