David Edwin Harrell Jr. (February 22, 1930 – March 15, 2021) was an American historian best known for his scholarship of religion in the United States. Harrell was born in Jacksonville, Florida to parents David Edwin (a physician) and Mildred Lee Harrell (a homemaker). He attended David Lipscomb College as an undergraduate, and Vanderbilt University as a graduate student. He received a Ph.D. in 1962. Harrell died on March 15, 2021.