The Department of History deeply mourns the passing of Emeritus Professor Dauril Alden, who died on March 16, 2023.
Dauril Alden was born in 1926 in California. From 1944 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Navy and saw combat in the Philippines and Okinawa. After the war, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned each of his degrees, receiving his doctorate in 1959. That same year, Dauril arrived at the University of Washington for the first time as an instructor before moving into an assistant professor role in July 1960. He did leave the university for a bit and taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and Columbia University. He also spent time living abroad where he conducted research and lectured in places such as Brazil, Portugal, India, Australia, Italy, Japan, and England. For more detail on his life, check out the very interesting biographical sketch that Dauril wrote for his page on the department website.
Dauril was a distinguished historian of Latin America and comparative colonialism with many highlights to his career, including some very prestigious grants. In 1976-77, he was named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. He was also awarded fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He was prolific. His books include Royal Government in Colonial Brazil (1968), Colonial Roots of Modern Brazil (1973) Essays in the Socioeconomic History of Brazil and Portuguese India (1977), The Making of an Enterprise: The Role of the Jesuits in Portugal, its Empire, and Beyond, 1540-1750 (1996), and Charles R. Boxer: An Uncommon Life: Soldier, Historian, Teacher, Traveler (2001). He published numerous articles and held many professional offices.
Dauril joined the ranks of emeritus with his retirement in 2003 and remained an active scholar. His papers are being donated to Boston College.
If you would like to send a sympathy card to Dauril's family, please contact Nick Grall (ngrall@uw.edu), Assistant to the Chair, for the address.
We invite you to share your remembrances of Dauril, which we will post below.
I was one of those "older blue-collar" students Professor Alden makes mention of in the last paragraph of his UW autobiographical page. I was working as a distribution manager for a local bakery and taking evening classes in my free time. Dr. Alden was a great lecturer, and at some point he took interest in me. It was he who encouraged me to think about applying as a graduate student in history, something I had never seriously considered. I received my Masters in History from UW in 2001 and have been teaching high school history in Malaysia, Vietnam, Mercer Island, and Des Moines, WA for the past twenty years. I remember Dr. Alden with great fondness and wish his family, colleagues, and former students my deepest sympathies.
Colin Bush
Des Moines, Washington