David Maclay Knipe

David Maclay Knipe (November 25, 1932-June 4, 2026), Susan Stevens’ beloved husband of 45 years, died peacefully at home after a short illness, thoughtful and light-hearted to the end. David lived a long, joyous, and productive life. He will be sorely missed and remembered with great fondness by family, friends, colleagues, and former students in many parts of the world.

A graduate of Cornell University (BA), Union Theological Seminary (MA), and the University of Chicago (MA and PhD), David was a historian of religions, a specialist in the religious traditions and rituals of India, ancient and modern. He was a charismatic teacher, devoted mentor, and renowned scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 35 years. His many important and varied contributions to his field include: Hinduism: Experiments in the Sacred; In the Image of Fire: The Vedic Experiences of Heat; The Hindu Rite of Entry Into Heaven And Other Essays on Death and Ancestors in Hinduism; and The Body and Sexuality in Religious Art and Experience. In retirement he published Vedic Voices: Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition, the result of 30 years of research, fieldwork, and friendship with Vedic pandits in the Konasima region of the Godavari River delta of Andhra Pradesh (India).

He is survived by his spouse, Susan, daughters Nicola, Viveka, and Jennifer, his former wife Monica, niece Elaine, nephews Mark and Bruce, grandchildren Asa, Eva, Zoë, Noah, Viggo, and Jaya, great-grandson Theo, and aatmiya sodarudu Krishnayya.

Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family.