Tokyo — David J. Farber, the American engineer and educator celebrated as the “Grandfather of the Internet,” passed away on February 7, 2026, at 91. He died of heart failure while living in Japan, where he served as distinguished professor and co-director of the Cyber Civilization Research Center at Keio University and remained active in teaching until weeks before his death.
Across a career stretching more than sixty years, Farber helped lay the intellectual and technical foundations of modern networking. Trained at Stevens Institute of Technology, he moved from early telecommunications research into building academic communities that nurtured the scientists who later scaled the global Internet.
He contributed to switching innovations at Bell Labs and later held senior academic roles at University of California, Irvine, University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon University. Farber was central to early research backbones including CSNET and NSFNET, which bridged universities and accelerated the Internet’s expansion beyond laboratories.
Beyond engineering, Farber influenced policy, advising the Federal Communications Commission and national science bodies on the future of digital infrastructure.
Inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, he was revered as a generous mentor whose students became leaders across academia, government and industry.
Farber’s passing closes a formative era. His enduring contribution was not just technology, but a culture of openness, collaboration and public-interest networking that continues to shape the digital world.
