David M. Daughton

David Maurice Daughton, 79, of Omaha, Nebraska, who died Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, wrote the opening line for his own obituary: “Life is fun, mysterious, wonderful, magical and too short as I recently found out.”

Visitation will be 5-7 p.m., with a time of sharing to follow at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15 at the West Center Chapel, 7805 W. Center Road, Omaha, Nebraska. A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16 at St. Robert Bellarmine Church, 11802 Pacific Street, Omaha. To view a live broadcast of the services, please visit www.heafeyheafey.com and click the “LiveCast” button at the top of the home page.

Memorials can be directed to Nebraska Lung Association, Habitat for Humanity or Omaha Public Schools Foundation for Refugee Immigrant Students.

David was born May 15, 1944, in Creston. David graduated from Creston High School and Creighton University - Go Jays! David’s career highlights include: teaching in the National Teacher Corps, director of Educational Therapy at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute, behavior researcher at the Nebraska Medical Center and ESL tutor at Burke High School.

During his 33 year tenure as a behavioral researcher, David was a co-investigator in the earliest trials on nicotine gum, nicotine patches, Zyban, the nicotine inhaler and varenicline. He co-authored more than 120 scientific articles, two books and several book chapters. David was an invited speaker throughout the United States and Europe. He also co-developed the Human Activity Profile test, one of the most used questionnaires for functional performance evaluation in the world. The test has been translated into multiple languages including Chinese, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

David had strong convictions about how people should treat each other, the roles of policymakers and the importance of protecting the environment. He and wife Barbara often wrote articles to the public pulse, hoping to influence others’ thoughts. David lived his life with intention, creating many adventures for himself and loved ones.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara (Benes); daughter, Joan; granddaughters, Emilee and Morgan; brothers, Mike (Cherie) Daughton and Steve (Kaira) Daughton; sister, Mary Jackson and seven nieces.

He wished to end his own obituary with, “I am so very grateful for having the best parents and siblings and for having jobs I enjoyed so much, I would have worked them for free. But most of all, I am grateful for having the best wife, child and granddaughters anyone ever had.”