David Kirkwood

David Arthur Kirkwood (September 20, 1935 – January 8, 2012) was an African American pentathlete and actor. He competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics winning a silver medal in the team event.

Kirkwood was born in Jackson, Mississippi but moved with his family to Los Angeles, California as a child. He attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School. After graduating from Dorsey in 1952, Kirkwood attended George Pepperdine College where he studied teaching and graduated in 1956.

Olympic experience Kirkwood enlisted in the Air Force in 1958. The following year, Kirkwood learned of the modern pentathlon and determined to give it a try. He expressed an interest with the Army and was given a tryout at the U.S. Modern Pentathlon Training Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas where the bulk of the U.S. pentathletes were training for the 1960 Summer Olympics. While he wasn't able to make that 1960 team he did attend the games in Rome as a spectator. Kirkwood showed enough promise that the Army allowed him to be permanently assigned to Fort Sam Houston to train for the next Olympics.

Kirkwood left California for Santa Fe, New Mexico in the early 2000s. He remarried Eliza M. Schmid and worked as an artist's model. He also spent time writing a history of the modern pentathlon, Pentathlon: Ancient, Modern, Contemporary. He died in Albuquerque, New Mexico in January 2012. His book was published posthumously in March 2012.