David Paul Mozingo, a resident of Darien, passed away peacefully with family by his side on May 14, 2025, at the age of 95.
David Mozingo, 95, passed away on May 14.
He was a beloved father and grandfather and lived a complete life that spanned military service, academia, business and family.
David was born on April 17, 1930, in Cleveland to Helen and Irwin Mozingo. He moved to Southern California during grade school, where he grew up and completed high school. He pursued his undergraduate studies at UCLA, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952 and went on to earn his master’s degree and Ph.D. from there.
He also graduated from the U.S. Army Language School with a specialization in Mandarin Chinese and completed post-graduate studies at Yale and Cornell Universities as part of his Ph.D. program.
He served in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1955, during and after the Korean War, as part of a field-based Army intelligence unit in Korea, where he specialized as an interpreter, translator, and code breaker.
After the war and graduate studies, he received a Ford Foundation foreign area fellowship for research in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. There he learned the Indonesian language and developed a specialty in Chinese policy toward Indonesia.
In 1962 he joined the Rand Corporation as a staff member and analyst of Chinese political, military, and economic policies. His work at Rand drew the interest of Cornell University, which he joined in 1967 and served as a professor of government. He went on to become the director of the China-Japan program there.
After retiring from Cornell in 1980, he became president of Califas (U.S.) LTD, an advisory firm assisting U.S. and European companies with business ventures in China; he managed its operations for 20 years.
David helped raise his family in Ithaca, New York, and Southern California, where he lived after leaving Cornell University. He moved to Darien in his later years to be closer to family.
There, he began writing articles and drafting a book on his theory of empire states and the balance of power with a focus on the U.S., China, and Russia. He was a great user of the Darien Public Library whose reference desk became his effective research team, helping him source materials from libraries across the country.
A lifelong passionate reader, writer, analyst, and commentator David published numerous academic articles and books, including:
— China’s Relations with Asian Neighbors (1964),
— Sino-Indonesian Relations: an Overview, 1955-1965 (1965),
— Lin Piao on “People’s War”: China Takes a Second Look at Vietnam (1965),
— Containment in Asia Reconsidered (1967),
— The Maoist Imprint on China’s Foreign Policy (1968),
— Chinese Foreign Policy and the Cultural Revolution (1970),
— Chinese Policy toward Indonesia, 1949-1967 (1976), and
— State and Society in Contemporary China (1983, co-authored/co-edited)
Beyond his writing, David will be most remembered for his values, love of family, and guiding principles he passed onto his children, grandchildren and loved ones. He was deeply loved and will be missed and his imprint on our lives will never diminish.
— an obituary from Lawrence Funeral Home, where online condolences may be left ( mayor on Legacy.com, here).