Douglas Kauffman
Sept. 17, 1947 Feb. 4, 2021
Douglas Scott Kauffman died of cancer at his home in Davis on Feb. 4. A lifelong Californian, he was born in Santa Clara on Sept. 17, 1947, to Jean and Fred Kauffman. He attended school in Sacramento and later UC Davis. Doug would be the first to tell you that he did not excel in school, being unable to muster the focus to graduate until 40 years later.
In the interim, he taught himself fluent Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Nepalese, some Hindi and Japanese as well as dabbling in Urdu and Latin. He was also a highly knowledgeable scholar of ancient history, anthropology, entomology, botany and ornithology.