David Andrew Hackett

Dr. David A. Hackett died after a short illness on Sunday, November 15, 2020. He is preceded in death by his parents: Dale Welper and Margaret Jenkins and his adoptive father Clarence G. Hackett. Dr. Hackett was a long-time resident of El Paso. He graduated from Austin High School. He received his BA in history from Earlham College. He went on to receive his Master’s and Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, under a Fulbright grant and returned to Germany several times over the course of his career for research under Fulbright and DAAD grants. He was an Associate Professor of History and taught at UTEP for forty years, including a term as Chairman of the History Department. He was the editor and translator of The Buchenwald Report (1995), which was published in German as Der Buchenwald Report (1996). It was subsequently translated into several other languages. The original manuscript was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995. Over the course of his career, Dr. Hackett taught 20th-century European history, Western Civilization and Holocaust history to thousands of students at UTEP. He was a scholar and teacher who was deeply committed to transmitting the values of justice, integrity, knowledge and truth. He is survived by his loving wife, Anne Hackett, his loving children, Mary-Elizabeth, Michael and Caroline Hackett and six beloved grandchildren, as well as his stepmother, Helen (Deja) Hackett, his brothers, Don Hackett, James Macayel and John Macayel and his sisters, Peggy Heinrichs, Susan Murray and Jenny Eveler. Services entrusted to Sunset Funeral Homes West. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to the El Paso Holocaust Museum.