David Kohn

David Kohn passed away suddenly on October 7, 2025. He was born in New York City on January 25, 1941, the son of Leslie and Karoline Kohn, Hungarian refugees from the Holocaust. David was a proud graduate of Stuyvesant High School and Queens College; he earned a Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts. He began his graduate career studying botany; his studies led him to the history of evolutionary botany, and thence to the heart of David's research, the work of Charles Darwin. He was an expert on Darwin's notebooks and spent considerable time in the Cambridge University Library and Down House. He was an associate editor of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin and directed The Darwin Digital Library of Evolution, making Darwin's manuscripts available to the public. David helped reconstruct the gardens and greenhouse at Down House, Darwin's home. After retiring from Drew University as the Oxnam Professor of Science and Society, David contributed to the American Museum of Natural History's 2005 Darwin exhibit. In 2008, David recreated Darwin's Garden at the New York Botanical Garden, as well as curating a show of Darwin's botanical manuscripts there. David loved flowers, food, and his family. He is survived by his wife Judith, sons Robert, Noah (Erin), and Jesse (Romy) and four granddaughters. Donations in his memory may be made to the New York Botanical Garden.