David Aldrich Nelson (August 14, 1932 – October 1, 2010) was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Nelson was born at Watertown, New York, the son of Carlton Low Nelson and Irene Demetria Aldrich Nelson. He was educated in the public schools of East Aurora, New York, and at Hamilton College, from which he was graduated in 1954 as valedictorian. Nelson began his legal studies that year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cambridge in England.