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David Kosofsky Obituary

DAVID RICHARD KOSOFSKY
Passed away suddenly of a heart attack on Tuesday, July 5, 2011 the day before his 58th birthday, in Wakefield, Rhode Island, where he had recently moved with his family. He lived for many years in East Asia, especially Korea. He taught English at Hanguk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul and was the author of two widely-used books: "Common Problems in Korean English" and "Language from the Body". David grew up in Bethesda. He was the son of the late Leon Kosofsky and brother of the late Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. He is survived by his wife Dr. Songmin Shin Kosofsky, their son Noam Ray, his sister Nina Kopesky, and his mother Rita Kosofsky of Bethesda. A memorial gathering will be held at a later date at Maplewood Park Place in Bethesda.

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Published by The Washington Post on Jul. 24, 2011.

Memories and Condolences
for David Kosofsky

Sponsored by David's friends and family.

16 Entries

Moisés Stanckowich

July 19, 2025

Un año más, un recuerdo más. Vivimos mientras somos recordados. Gracias, David. z"l

Moises Stanckowich

July 22, 2024

Un año más sigues vivo en nuestro recuerdo. Allá donde estés, ¡vive! z"l

Choe Seung-chul

October 6, 2023

I studied at Hanguk University of Foreign Studies and, fortunately, was taught by Mr. Kosofsky. It was an great honor.

Moisés Stanckowich

July 18, 2023

David, always living in our hearts. z"l

Moisés Stanckowich

July 18, 2021

Estimado David, sigues presente en nuestra memoria, en el recuerdo de aquellos años en Corea del Sur. z"l

Moises Stanckowich

August 21, 2020

Dear David, I will always remember you from those beautiful days in Seoul. Thank you for your kindness.

John Berman

January 1, 2013

I was assigned to Rita Kosofsky's English class in 11th grade for my initial quarter-year segment. I chose her Women Authors quarterly course later that year, not for any reason of subject matter, but specifically because Mrs. Kosofsky was one of the most gracious and genuine people I had ever met, together with her quiet but captivating enthusiasm for literature...and for teaching, and for her students individually. Her gentle precision, warm encouragement, first-rate scholarship, and her welcoming appreciation of the quirky essays and senses of humor from me and the other science guys, made it a pleasure to sit down in her class. Her teaching changed me and was unforgettable.

I am terribly sad to read of her losses. It sounds as if Mrs. Kosofsky's scholarship, full heart, and pure humanism reached many people not only from her high-school teaching but also from her no-doubt amazing role as a mother. I did not know Mrs. Kosofsky's children, but in the wake of such sadness, it is heartening to read how they, and she, touched others around the world.

Moises Stanckowich

August 20, 2012

R.I.P. my good friend, z"l, thanks a lot for you help in Seoul. See you!

Jinna Park

November 11, 2011

Named after one of America's most well-known authors, Henry David Thoreau, by his literature-loving, former English-teacher mother, Rita Kosofsky, David was a natural-born teacher, and exceptional writer and editor who did not fall short of his given name.

I was extremely fortunate to have first met David as an English professor when I was a freshman at university. Some older students had advised me to avoid Professor Kosofsky's classes as they were among the most difficult, and stressful courses throughout the four-year program; that is, his classes were to-be-avoided-at-all-costs if one sought to have a decent GPA. But it was that very amazing news and high reputation what challenged me, and drew me to David's class. Alas, he did indeed make his students work hard to earn and to deserve their grades; however, that may be the reason I can still remember today almost every topic discussed during his Friday afternoon class on the fall semester of some twenty years ago.

Upon leaving school six years later, I ran into David one day on campus, and as we parted, he gave me his e-mail address, and asked to keep in touch. That was how we became friends, corresponding by e-mail regularly for fourteen years even after he and his family left Korea. David was a most generous and knowledgeable former professor, who always spared his time and had immense patience to explain and to paraphrase complex English literary phrases for a former student, and he was an extremely thoughtful uncle-like friend, whose e-greetings never failed to delight and inspire me. It is owing to his incomparable friendship, and his constant encouragements that I could enjoy a career in journalism, and could remain interested in learning about new ideas, and about the world of languages.

Learning of David's sudden, untimely passing, I felt like a bird that had lost one of its wings, and would never be able to fly again. I realized that I would no longer receive his beautifully written long e-mails, nor be able to admire any more of his logically interwoven sentences, and insightful comments. My parents gave me life, but David, in his quiet yet persuasive and exemplary way as great teachers are said to do, had guided me to look for my life's dream. And finally, I believe with intention, he left behind one last big lesson for me: to think about how I would leave this world. A true master of communication and teaching skills, and of the English language, Professor David Kosofsky will forever be missed and remembered.

Around 99 in the Everglades

Michael Simon

October 8, 2011

Michael Simon

October 8, 2011

I wish I could quote some of the amazing early letters I got from our David, dear fellow mourners, but I am as usual on the road. I remember that one missive exceeded 10,000 words, easily the longest epistle I’ve ever received, limericks, lush adjectives and exclamation marks peppering a stew of anecdotes about his life in Malaysia.

David was the first person I met upon arrival in Japan in 1979. Living upstairs of an squid pancake joint next to a fish-paste factory in Kyoto in a “traditional” Japanese apartment building with no insulation and a draft that could carry you away (perhaps the only draft we couldn’t dodge), we immediately fell into fast conversation, and we remarked that it seemed like meeting some long-lost family member. It was odd to go so far away from my home in order to find someone so close to me. I crashed with him for a month, and our friendship was cemented for life. Through all our travels, through life changes and life-changing events, we were constant in each other’s hearts, and we knew that somewhere out there was someone who understood us totally.

Unlike me, there was nothing of the chameleon in David. He was always himself and never assumed the colors of his background, not while living in Japan, in Korea (or Agony Country, as he called it), in Malaysia, or in Nawlins (where he loved the music and the diction)—he was never swayed by any false sense of belonging. He always spoke in well-rounded sentences, typically with an introductory clause after which he would pause to be sure he had your attention, e.g.: “One of the things I’ve noticed about living in Asia… [pause, connect] is [whatever.]” He understood much better than I about the joys and burdens of being born Jewish and even while learning my first useful Japanese expressions from him, I reconnected with a host of Jewish vocabulary I had almost forgotten. Graced with parents who loved him and who understood him much better than mine did me, he was fully individuated, and he helped to shape my adulthood out of the fragments of my unhappy childhood.

David always reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut, particularly the dictum, “We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different.” He always marveled at my busy life, like some complicated bug he would pick up, look at, and put back down as not useful to him, not as an example, not as art, not as food. The most virtuous of family-focused guys, he had few of my vices, and as I get older and my mishugaas fades away along with my hyperactivity, he’s more and more an example to me.

One of the painful things about having most of your friends all over the world is that at any one moment, 90% or more of them are somewhere else, too far to visit. We say we’ll get there soon but the days pass and the years pass. Through the years, we met in Seoul, New York, and D.C., and we had a great trip together to the Everglades. I guess the moral of this story is: Let’s all meet again, real soon!

Stephen Epstein

October 7, 2011

I just want to add here the words I spoke earlier this week at a launch of novel translation that David had helped me with in his own inimitable D.Avidly way:

>>My final thanks go to someone very, very special to me. In my brief introductory note to Telegram, along with Sariani, I give particular pride of place to my friend David Kosofsky. David loved words, language and word play and would always happily read drafts of any literary piece I’d work on—and then equally happily and incisively rip to shreds any awkward English renderings I’d come up with and push me towards something better. Like his late sister Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, whose work Epistemology of the Closet is perhaps the classic text of Queer Studies, David struck out on an iconoclastic intellectual journey in his life that invigorated anyone who ever had the good fortune to come into contact with him. I first met David in Seoul where he taught English at a university for several years and although he wasn’t a Koreanist, he was perhaps the most brilliant, insightful and original commentator I encountered on matters of Korean society, not to mention a constant source to me of both fascinating arcana, and central insights into the human condition.

In July, shortly after Telegram was published and I was awaiting copies to send on to David, he went out for a full day of kayaking with a friend, but at the end of it he was feeling unwell, lay down on the dock and had a massive heart attack, one day short of his 58th birthday. I console myself, to the extent that I can, that he went out after a good day in the physical activity that he most enjoyed in the world. He leaves behind his wife Songmin, his 13-year-old son, Noam with whom he shared a relationship as close as any father and son could hope to have, and a huge number of close friends who already deeply miss his incredible wit and his one-of-a-kind take on life. The world has lost a genuine original, and I dedicate this book and the launch to him, and somehow, David, I hope my words are permeating the ether and reaching you.
David....still thinking of you daily. I miss you.

Martin Kagel

August 7, 2011

I was just thinking about David when I received the news of his passing--too soon, so sad--, as I read in one of his sister's books, thinking how similar they were. Much like her, David was learned, playful, radical, in love with language, irreverent, and, in his case, somehow not entirely matured. He wouldn't have thought of the latter as a negative thing and neither do I. He and I had some great conversations in between picking up and dropping off kids. The one that I remember most vividly was about finding one's use by rendering oneself useless to society. David is one of the few Americans I have met who seemed to have a (natural) European sensibility with regard to the concept of utility, in fact, an Eastern European. Sometimes, he reminded me of the anarchic characters of the early Brecht plays whose lives are geared toward pleasure. Just like with them, there was something incommensurable about him, and he knew this, cultivated it to some degree. Soon after our conversation about the negative meaning of utility, he sent me an e-mail with a Korean proverb, which said: the straight tree is cut down first. I kept it b/c I knew then that we had an understanding. I will miss his kindness, his friendship, and the inspiring e-mails from avid D.

Laura Kagel

July 31, 2011

David was not too busy to want to really get to know people. The person he was most curious about was his son, and even as he tried in many ways to shape him, he viewed him as a unique individual unfolding before him and drew so much enjoyment from discovering him day after day. He was unusual in that he had figured out how he wanted to live and was doing that. It didn't have to do with being able to afford special things, but about having special time to spend with his family and friends. I was glad to have shared some of that time with him and feel comforted that he did not have any big regrets about his life when he passed too soon. He will be missed.

Angela Bryan

July 26, 2011

David will forever have a special place in my heart. He was there for me when our family was new in Athens and we did not know many people yet. David and his son Noam spent many afternoons brightening my childrens and my lives with wonderful conversations, fun outings and cozy playtimes and picnics. His devotion to his wife and son was very deep, beautiful and inspiring. He was one of those rare people who was truly interested in getting to know and understand the true person behind the outward appearance, recognizing the value of each human being. He had to go much too soon and he will always be a part of my life,as he has touched it in an unforgettable way. My prayers go to his wife and son that they would feel carried and loved by all the people their wonderful husband and father enriched in so many ways.

Sara Baker

July 24, 2011

I had the pleasure of knowing David in Athens, Georgia where he and his family lived for a time. He had a great gift for friendship, a subtle and wide ranging intelligence, and was fiercely devoted to his family, especially his son. He warmed the lives of many who knew him, and he will be greatly missed.

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