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Nigel Daw

Nigel Daw of Branford died Nov. 3 at the age of 88, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.

Nigel was a pioneer in visual neurophysiology and author, as well as a true gentleman and loving husband, father and grandfather. Born and educated in the UK, he came to America, as an associate scientist at Polaroid to study color vision; and then went on to get his PhD in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard and with ongoing research at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, he joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, becoming Acting Chairman in Physiology, then in Neurobiology. After 23 years, he moved to Branford, to take a position at Yale, serving as Professor and Research Director in Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and Professor in Neurobiology until he retired. He received the 1994 Friedenwald Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Opthalmology for his many contributions to the field, and wrote the widely used textbook, Visual Development, as well as a book for a more general audience, How Vision Works.

Living in Branford allowed Nigel and his wife, artist Leila Daw, to live the life they had dreamed, close to the sea, with sailboats and a wonderful place for children and grandchildren to visit.

He is survived by his wife Leila; his sister Jennifer Black; two sons, Warwick and Adrian Daw; and three grandchildren, Brennan, Marguerite and Azalea Daw.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Branford. All friends are invited to attend.