David Gardner of Lexington, Massachusetts, died on April 11, 2026. He was 87 years old. He lived with precision, moved through the world with an appetite for adventure, and he leaves behind people who are better for both.

Raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, David served with the United States Army's 82nd Airborne Division, then with the Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, before earning a doctorate in French from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It was a trajectory that told you everything about the man: he was equally at home in a field, a foxhole, and a library.

He spent his working life as a travel writer, photographer, and technical writer. In his 80s, he fulfilled a lifetime dream, writing three published novels: A Paranormal Thriller , The Last Speaker of Skalwegian , and The Accidental Spy — each one a window into a mind that found the absurd lurking in everyday life.

His military service took him to Germany, where he found a passion for skiing that remained with him long after he retired from the army. That early taste of Europe opened something in him. In the decades that followed, he traveled with his wife Nancy to Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, China, and through the Panama Canal, writing about the places they saw and photographing them with an eye trained to find both the grand and the particular. He formalized his passion for travel photography, graduating from the New England School of Photography in the early 2000s. His travel articles appeared in the Boston Globe, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Los Angeles Times.

Among his travels, one moment stood apart: in the village of Gignac, France, he befriended the owner of the local restaurant and found himself seated across from the head of the French Truffle Society. His fluid French, earned through years of study and sharpened by life, carried the conversation. This encounter could only happen to a man who was genuinely curious about the person in front of him.

In retirement, David turned his curiosity toward the sky. A large telescope on the back porch became a fixture of his evenings, and he tracked the universe with the same attentiveness he had given everything else. He taught himself piano late in life and recently bought a new camera, not to slow down but to reinvigorate. He loved his grandchildren from their first days and gave them the full measure of his love and attention as they grew.

David is survived by his wife of thirty-one years, Nancy; his daughter, Ruth Ronen, her husband, Sagi, and their children, Sivan and Rafi; his son, Matt Gardner, and his partner, Cindy Reid; his sister, Laura Salazar of Michigan; her daughter, Kate Salazar, and her daughters, Gabby and Julianna; and her daughter-in-law, Kiri Salazar, and her son, Alexei. David's family will miss his wisdom, common sense, and sense of humor.