Among philosophers, anyway, Nietzsche was unusual in recommending that we avoid thinking about death. Many Christian philosophers, viewing life as a sort of pilgrimage, emphasize death and mortality in their teaching. And the so-called existentialists—Sartre, Heidegger, and Co.—brought in the fact of death early and often. (Heidegger even defined man as a “being-towards-death.”)
Indeed, the reputation philosophers have for being on the whole rather gloomy chaps is not unmerited. You will find that many of them are always steering the conversation around to death. Wanting to “concentrate the mind,” they reason that unwelcome reminders about mortality will do the trick.
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