David Theron Sanford

As a young child, David developed wide interests in the natural world, history, mythology, astronomy, and world cultures, and he exhibited an ability to draw from nature. Starting in high school, he worked over four summers for the National Museum of Canada on archaeological excavations at the Sheguiandah site on Manitoulin Island where he excavated and documented Paleo-Indian and Archaic period artifacts. He began his undergraduate studies in anthropology at Beloit College in Wisconsin, then transferred to Wayne State University in Michigan. While an undergraduate student, David excavated Native American sites in the Upper Missouri Basin for the Smithsonian's River Basin Surveys, and he worked on a Nebraska State Historical Society archeological crew, determining the location of buildings at the Fort Atkinson site (the first U.S. army post established west of the Missouri River). He also spent a semester in Mexico, on a cultural anthropology field study, followed by a summer in Berkeley, immersed in the Beat Movement: listening to jazz and attending poetry readings. He then decided to pursue art history for his graduate studies thus spent an extra year at Wayne, taking additional art and art history courses, and enjoying the Detroit jazz club scene.

David began graduate school at U.C. Berkeley in 1960, but soon learned that the University of Hawaii was opening an East-West Center and that American students accepted into that program would receive fellowships enabling them to undertake a study tour in Asia. David was among the first class of students entering that program in 1961. His major advisor was Prithwish Neogy who was open to the idea (unusual for art history at that time) that David (who had already done lost wax bronze casting) would undertake a study of present-day bronze icon makers in South India for his Master's thesis. David spent 1962-1964 in South and Southeast Asia, first on a study tour of major sites and museums, then settling in Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu, where he apprenticed to Jaganatha Sthapati at the Sri Devi Sirpa Salai attached to the Ramaswami Temple. He claimed to have been the only East-West Center grantee to have asked for less money, he just wanted more time in India! The University of Hawaii only offered the M.A. degree, so David went to UCLA for his art history Ph. D. degree. He returned to South India in 1968-1970 on a UCLA Art Council grant, to collect photos and data for his dissertation on early temples bearing Ramayana relief cycles in the Chola Area. He elected to work on the Ramayana, the one theme represented at several temples, due to his interest in narrative art in its original context. David later received two Senior Scholar Research Fellowships granted by the American Institute of Indian Studies, again enabling field work in South India. From 1975-1978 he focused on significances of iconographic diversity in the Chola heartland during the early Medieval period, and from 1984-1985 he explored the nature, functions, and symbolism of temple wood carvings and mural paintings of the monsoon coast of South India (Kerala and Coastal Karnataka). His extensive photographic archive of Kerala temple murals is particularly unique, as permission to photograph inside these temples is not usually granted. David once described his motivations and insights, explaining "I am deeply interested in gods, myths and legends. They have disappeared as living parts of society in almost all other ancient civilizations, however, they are alive and well in India. Temple culture is inclusive of a vast multitude of interrelated arts, such as performing arts, paintings and sculptures. Many scholars limit themselves by working solely with written or oral texts. Sculptures and paintings are texts of a different dimension which provide unique additional perspectives." David was also keenly interested in dance-drama and other performing arts in India, and the relationship between performed narratives and other visual arts. In addition to his grant-funded field research in India, David spent six months in Southern Spain, doing a field study of Hispano-Islamic and Mudejar monuments in Andalucia.

David has taught at UCLA, California State University Fullerton, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, The University of Texas at Austin, Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas), and Wheaton College (Norton, Massachusetts). He taught a variety of courses on the arts of India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, as well as art history surveys, introductions to the visual arts, seminars on portraiture, on problems and methods in iconography & iconology, and specialized independent study courses. He presented lectures at museums, was involved in docent training, and was an invited guest speaker at both academic venues and for community organizations and events such as the Texas Tamil Festival. David was always so grateful to have been able to study with a number of prominent European scholars that had been displaced due to the horrors of Naziism and World War II, as well as with scholars who had spent many years in China before the cultural revolution (such as art historians Ernst Scheyer who knew artists such as Max Ernst and Lyonel Feininger, and Gustav Ecke, a leading scholar of Chinese art). Together with Prithwish Neogy, each of these scholars and mentors was profoundly influential on David's approach to teaching, living, and appreciating artistic expressions and their contexts. But David was never able to obtain a tenure tract position that would allow him to settle down. The life of an itinerant scholar (visiting lecturer or adjunct professor) took a toll on his health and played a part in preventing him from focusing on desired publication projects. David thankfully survived colon cancer, but unfortunately not without years of chronic pain.

David appreciated beauty in many forms: sights, smells, sounds, touch, and taste, and he once described himself as being basically a hedonist. This appreciation extended to Hindu ritual practices, and David, who had attended a Unitarian Universalist church as a child, found comfort and meaning in Śiva worship. David relished the mundane as well as the divine, and while at Wheaton College he founded an unofficial campus organization dubbed the "Tri-G's:" The Gospel of Gluttony Group. Anyone interested in exploring the various ethnic restaurants around Boston, Providence, and surroundings, was welcome to join. He made lifelong friendships through that unofficial campus organization. He could also have a mischievous sense of humor. Once, when asked what languages he could speak, David responded: "1950's South Michigan Bopese." Although David had wide interests, team sport was never one of them. That is, until he retired, just around the time that Austin experienced a roller derby revival. A poster caught his eye and after attending his first match, he became a major fan. He loved the performance art aspect of the sport, how bold and fierce the athletes were, and their creativity in name selection. His enthusiasm for the roller derby scene was contagious.

David interacted with the world largely through storytelling and narrative. He had the "gift of gab" and loved to talk with whomever he met, relishing to find out about their lives. His friends and acquaintances, from all walks of life, were astounded by his ability to retain detailed information about people he interacted with or something he read, heard, or saw (and when and where). When dementia and Alzheimer disease began to ravage his brain and he could no longer follow a narrative or tell a tale, he seemingly lost his ability to make sense of the world. He developed an anxiety disorder and had panic attacks. His physical health also declined. At the end of his life, David was cared for lovingly by the staffs of CelesteCare of Horseshoe Bay and AccentCare Hospice & Palliative Care. He is survived by his wife of over forty years, Janine Henri, and his beloved son Geoff Sanford, as well as by cherished nephews and nieces, and their children and grandchildren. He is predeceased by his parents and his sister Jonalee "Rani" Vakoutis and his brothers-in-law Malcolm Robbins and James Vakoutis. His ashes will be scattered by his family according to his wishes.

David loved being a father and a teacher and he so enjoyed flowers, star gazing, celebrating festivals, and exploring the delights of art, music, dining, and nature. After hearing that a passer-by had commented "the one who stops and smells the flowers" upon observing David doing just that, one of his dear friends gave him a vehicle license plate frame with that quote. Those wishing to remember David can do so by taking the time to stop and smell flowers, gaze at the stars, recite poetry under a full moon, share stories or a meal, or simply spend time in nature, or appreciating music and the arts.