How can I reset an ipad whose previous owner has died?

I'm afraid it may not be simple. Apple recently tightened the procedure for this.

https://support.apple.com/HT208510 says:

Before Apple can provide assistance in accessing a deceased person’s device or the personal information they stored in iCloud, we ask that the person’s next of kin obtain a court order that names them as the rightful inheritor of their loved one’s personal information. 

We ask that the court order specify:

• The name and Apple ID of the deceased person.
• The name of the next of kin who is requesting access to the decedent’s account.
• That the decedent was the user of all accounts associated with the Apple ID.
• That the requestor is the decedent’s legal personal representative, agent, or heir, whose authorization constitutes "lawful consent.”
• That Apple is ordered by the court to assist in the provision of access to the decedent’s information from the deceased person's accounts.

If you have a court order with this information, or if you need additional help, please contact Apple Support.

(End quote)

Since if you knew the ID and password you wouldn't need their help this does rather limit your options.

W T....???

Really???

Not worth the hassle if it is a fairly old iOS device!

It is a good thing that I am the administrator of all of my immediate family's and my wife’s iOS devices.

I have written copies of everyone's devices’ Apple ID's and passwords/passcodes.

No one in my immediate family have good memories, any longer, including my wife and I.

If you can't get a copy of the death certificate and something to prove this iPad was given to you and possibly, the original sales receipt and then bring all this along with the iPad to your nearest, “local” Apple Store, then this iPad iwill be a useless device to you.

Do you know what iPad model this is? It will have the model number in small print on the aluminium back under the large print “iPad”?

I was just actually replying to Roger Wilmut’s reply.

Apple just keeps making thr privacy policies much stricter and harder and harder to obtain older, used devices from other users and sellers that do not know how to properly reset these devices or know nothing about the state of the device.

If this is an old iPad 2, 3, 4 or 1st gen iPad Mini, all of these iPads are becoming fully unsupported and obsolete now, if trying to get up and running from an initialised state.

With all the hoops you are going to have to go through, now, it maybe better just to return the device to the person that gave it to you and have them deal with this iPad, instead, OR recycle this device, yourself, with Apple.

If this is an old iPad, the effort to get this iPad operational, again, may not be worth it, in the end!