Alumnus Rippeteau provides oral history of AnthroGroup, Department of Anthropology

In the fall of 2021, Dr. Bruce Rippeteau, founder of AnthroGroup, then known as Anthro Club, approached the club's president Ashley Novak, faculty advisor Dr. Taylor Livingston, and vice president Ana Reiff about taking part in his project of collecting and publishing remembrances from those who began the club. Rippeteau was inspired to begin the project after meeting members of AnthroGroup and the faculty advisor at the time—and previous president of the group when she was an undergraduate—Dr. Gwyneth Talley.

Below are stories about the Department of Anthropology and the formation of AnthroGroup from past club members, collected and introduced by Dr. Rippeteau and presented here as an oral history.

Bruce Rippeteau: These following readings concern the founding of the AnthroGroup (aka the Anthro Club) and the early 1960s times at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln's Department of Anthropology.

When attending the Sunday, April 30, 2021 "End of Semester Party" hosted by the School of Integrative Studies (where the Anthropology Department is now housed) at the University's Reller Prairie Field Station, members of current day AnthroGroup and myself became very interested in the somewhat unknown–or at least, unremembered– origins and formation of this still active Anthropology Group.

Having written an essay with illustrating photos about the founding of the Anthropology Department's "Alumni Friends and Advisory Board," known as AFAB, I undertook a largely email and phone survey from Fall of 2020 through Spring of 2021. Thus, these following readings resulted from that inquiry involving alumni and several past faculty.

Rippeteau: (to Richard Krause) Dick, my memory is that you volunteered to be the "Faculty Advisor" after I [Rippeteau] wanted to start a club. And that we had you, and other faculty such as Dave Kelley, Alice Kehoe, and Alexander Sonek speak, and that you arranged for your Yale classmate from South Africa, Nick Van de Merwe, come to Lincoln and speak on 14C [Carbon 14] dating of South Africa iron sites (some of which got me interested in a subsequent degree in 14C and the U AZ [University of Arizona, where Rippeteau attended graduate school] 14C lab!). We also had several other groups like the River Basin Survey [the research office of the then Smithsonian Institute's Missouri Basin Project, which became the Midwest Archaeological Center under the direction of the National Parks Service in 1969] and the University and other museums and historic societies to furnish talks.

Rippeteau: (to Susan Traub) There are a couple more names tugging at my memory. I personally do remember coming to the [Anthropology] Department in the Fall of 1965 as a Junior, and soon stimulating and being the first/founding student president. If any of you remember differently, for gosh sakes tell me. There is no ego in this, just memories. I have no memory of anything earlier that we built upon. And I sure would like to know the founding VP and such, and the later intermediate officers, if any, and what they did.

Susan Traub: In the summer of 1966, I was the cook for the hotel at Fort Robinson State Park where the Nebraska State Historical Society was excavating the jail site where Crazy Horse was killed. That was the first exposure I had to Anthropology/Archaeology, but I liked the folks there. At the same time, there was a paleontology crew working in the Badlands from the Nebraska State Museum. I had a friend from high school on each of those crews, Travis Gray on the Historical Society crew and Tod Ashmun on the Paleontology crew. I was pretty fascinated and once I returned to UNL, I switched my major from Pre- Law/Political Science to Anthropology, a curriculum I had never had a course in! I was in the UNL Archaeology Field School in the summer of 1967 then returned to the department for the ensuing year. The summer of 1968 I was in England working on an old Roman site and flew back from there directly to Columbia [Missouri] the day before I started Grad School at the University of Missouri. I crammed my entire undergraduate Anthro course of study in those three semesters, one summer in Field School and I talked Professor Holder into giving me the 8 hours of credit I needed to graduate from the work I did in England.

My recollection of AnthroGroup was one specific meeting where Juris (aka George) Zarins was present (the first time I met him. Prior he was just a legend!) as was Ray Wood. I didn't understand how they knew each other until much later when I realized that Juri had been working with the River Basin Survey as early as high school. By the time I met Juri, he was already at the University of Chicago and was home for a holiday.

Richard Krause: The Anthropology Club you referenced, and as I remember, you founded and served as first president, was the first club recognized as a legal University of Nebraska (not yet UNL) student organization. 

It was however preceded by an informally organized group of John [Leland] Champe's [influential Great Plains archaeologist who was an alumnus of UNL and later a faculty member in Anthropology until 1961] students called the "Beaver Patrol." This group was, however, defunct by the time I became a student-athlete with a football scholarship, at the University of Nebraska in 1959. Here is what Ray Wood who was a member of the "Beaver Patrol" said about it in his 2011 autobiography, A White Bearded Plain Plainsman: "Graduate and undergraduate students in the department formed a genial cadre that participated in informal weekend digs and helped with chores around Burnett Hall as members of what Champe called the 'Beaver Patrol.' Some where we actually obtained a small but scruffy (the word was well chosen) stuffed beaver as a mascot. One weekend we accompanied Champe to Manhattan, Kansas, where we helped Lynn Hogden of Kansas State University salvage what he could of a Central Plains tradition house site... The Beaver Patrol also helped around the lab at odd hours...There was no academic competition among members of the Beaver Patrol, but rather mutual helpfulness. When one of us decided to make a presentation at the Plains Conference, we'd circulate a draft of it among ourselves, take the advice of our peers, and revise it." (Wood, W.R. 2011: 50)."

To me at least, this sounds much like the 1969 graduate student association formed by Ray's students at the University of Missouri termed the "Missouri Mafia," for which I believe Nebraska's "Beaver Patrol" was the prototype. If I am correct in my claim that Nebraska's "Beaver Patrol" was the prototype for the" Missouri Mafia," the "Beaver Patrol" played a significant role in shaping the course of Great Plains archaeology and anthropology but by 1959 was gone from the Anthropology Department at the University of Nebraska leaving no local memory of its passing.

Thomas Thiessen: I think I succeeded Ole [Olin Barjenbruch] as president for 1967-1968, though I don't know why I was elected, as I was a nobody in the Department at the time. I don't remember who followed me as president. While I was president, I remember we had talks by Jerry Petsche (on the Bertrand project), Dick Johnston (on the excavation of a burial mound in Ontario which was the subject of his doctoral research), Dale Henning (who was newly arrived in the Department, with Margot Liberty, after Kelley/Kehoe/Sonek, and one other faculty member all left at about the same time, and Lloyd Tanner (who spoke about his recent visit to Egypt in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war). There were others, including John Champe twice, first about his research on either the Omahas or the Yanktons for the Indian Claims Commission, and later about the history of anthropology at the University of Nebraska. I remember that Champe declined to give permission for his talks to be taped, though Dale did agree to such (the tape has long since disappeared). I remember visiting Champe's house on South 27th street twice to invite him to talk [...] I believe the name of the student group [at the time] was the Anthro Group at the University of Nebraska.

Do you remember a man who came to the talks pretty regularly as an escort for a young female student? I always presumed that he was her father or uncle and was chaperoning her. He was short, always wore baggy trousers, and overall reminded me of Odd Job in the James Bond Dr. No movie. I didn't know his name. A rumor circulated among us students that he had been a CIA operative in Cuba or something of the sort. Does this ring a bell with either of you?

Eventually I saw his obituary, which I still have and surprisingly was able to find today. He was an interesting fellow. Look at his background from the obit: "Former Game Commissioner Dead at 70. Dudley P. Osborn, former state game commissioner and chief of boating for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, died Tuesday. He was 70. Osborn, 2325 S. 38th St., worked for the Game and Parks Commission from 1959 until he retired in 1979. He also was past president of the Nebraska Farm Safety Council. Born in Chicago, Osborn spent 25 years living and traveling in 19 different countries in Europe, the Near East, and Latin America. Before coming to Nebraska, he taught Romance languages at the University of Virginia and at the College of the Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico. A veteran of World War II, Osborn was a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, where he was in the military police and specialized in guerilla warfare. Osborn studied at the University of London and received his master's degree in Romance languages from the University of Grenoble, France, where he played professional soccer for the city and championship rugby for the university."

How about that?

Rippeteau: Fall 1965 had to be the Club start, because that is when I arrived, and that is the 1965-66 "School Year". Dick K[rause] says there was a "Beaver Club" beforehand. It was Olin whom I was thinking of, and I think it was he who was VP [Vice President] as we started up and then was the second P[resident] in 1966-67. Then, per you, you were Pres[ident] in school year 1967-68 (and January 1968 I graduated and went to University of Arizona). [...] Tom, in reading your memory of the name, it rots my socks we (and here I mean moi) did not leave a trail of the usual assemblage, meetings, and correspondence; Guess we were "just students," not fully fledged bureaucrats. But it is not too late to be remembering. I have no memory of your guy, Dudley Osborn! Maybe I had graduated already, in February 1968, with the Army done and so immediately off to U. Arizona?

John Ehrenhard: Yes, I remember that guy. His niece was in one of the introductory classes Dale taught when I was his student assistant. I looked up from my desk (in the basement) on day and there was the train car plug of a man standing there who introduced himself as Dudley Osborn. He did say he was her guardian. (I think) she was from Puerto Rico and did not speak very much English. Mr. Osborn indicated to me that he would be much obliged if I would look out for her. That's when he bent a penny between his fingers!!! She did poorly in class because she could not understand much of what was going on. One day she came into my office and gave me this wonderful huge book (In Spanish) about archeological sites. (A BRIBE) I still have the book and she had written her name in it.

I'll have to look that up the next time I go to Jacksonville where I keep the majority of my library. I believe she ended up with a D for the course but from her perspective she did not flunk out.

Ed Fry was my advisor. I thought he was a linguist. [Edward I. Fry was a biological anthropologist who focused on child development.] He did not seem to have much interest in me, and I can hardly call him an advisor. When I introduced myself to him and said I understood that he was my advisor he just sorts of huffed. I told him I had transferred to Anthropology from Civil Engineering. He told me I was an idiot for doing that. That was about as warm as our relationship ever got. You mentioned that Kelley, Sonek and Alice [Kehoe] deserted [Preston] Holder in one semester. Was the 4th David Eyde? [Several Anthropology faculty left the department when Preston Holder was chair of the department, 1965-1967.] Am I correct in the following: When we were undergraduates in 1965 the faculty consisted of: Preston Holder, Dick Krause, Ed Fry, David Kelley? In 1965 Gayle Carlson, Terry Steinecker, Tom Roll and Tom Riley were the "big dog" graduate students. While there were others, I can't remember. I think the major group of us that hung around together (first as undergraduates and then to some degree graduate students) were as follows: Don Blakeslee, CeCe Miller, Geno Rogge, Kathy Knight, Cherie Hales, Bruce Rippeteau (he came late), Ted Schuler, Susan Bode [Traub], Mike McNerney, Jim Schleicher (had red hair and slipped off to Canada to avoid the draft), Tom Thiessen, John Ehrenhard, Dorinda Partsch.

Thiessen: I guess I don't actually know Ed Fry's specialty, though I assumed at the time he was a cultural anthropologist. I think I only met with him a couple of times. I remember him telling me my grades were not good enough for an Anthro major. Mark Lynott [Archaeologist for the Midwest Archaeological Center] knew him from Texas, I learned much, much later. 

I'm not totally sure who the faculty members were in the Fall of 1965. I remember Holder, of course. I'm not sure about Krause, he may have come a year or two later. My Intro to Anthro course was taught by David Eyde, so he was there for sure. I remember a linguist named Dick(?) Carter subbing for Eyde a couple of times. I should look at my transcript, it may jog memories. I took Intro to Physical Anthro from Krause, and he gave me a well-deserved D in it. I mentioned that to him many years later when I ran into him looking at pottery at the State Historical Society in Bismarck [North Dakota] and he said he had never given any student a D. But my transcript proves otherwise!

I'm sure that Gayle Carlson, Terry Steinacher, and Tom Riley were prominent graduate students when we started out as undergraduates, but I'm not sure about Tom Roll. He was a National Parks Service historian at Pipestone for a time before going academic at Montana State. I remember Tom Riley as being very kind to me, a fledgling freshman. 

Your list of students evokes memories. I presume that "Susan" on your list is Susan Bode [Traub]; she's now the Kansas Susan in AFAB [Alumni and Friends Advisory Board for the Anthropology Unit]. Who can forget Ted Schuler? I used to run into him about once a year around Lincoln. I remember seeing him at Antelope Park one time, where he was participating in a Creative Anachronisms event (with sword fighting, etc.). I think Jim S. was "Little Jimmy Schleicher" who went to Canada to avoid the draft but returned to Lincoln later. Dorinda Partsch ended up in National Parks Service collections work at Indian Dunes National Lakeshore, I believe. There was also a guy named Joe Emmons who got drafted and the was the last I heard of him. And also, do you remember Dave Evans, the perpetual graduate student who collected master's degrees?

I will never forget being in Jim Gibson's first linguistics class when he went around the room calling out students' names so he could associate names with faces. He pronounced the name of one student kind of like "A-lad-din Ratschid" was corrected by the student-- pronounced something like "Alladeen Rahscheed"--who explained that his parents were from Egypt. Jim sheepishly retorted that just because he is a linguist, everyone expects him to know all pronunciations! Those were the days, my friend!

Rippeteau: I appreciate both your continuing memories from 56 years ago! Wasn't Alice Kehoe here in 1965 too? What a character Preston Holder was! Great to see all those names remembered, and I now remember how I came to Lincoln more or less the day the Fall 1965 Fall semester started. I mostly fit in with you all (and have nice memories of the RBS [River Basin Survey] talks over there and such like. Dorinda's brother Frank was the Editor of the Omaha World Herald, and I used a picture of her curating, in my, A Colorado Book of the Dead (a paperback prehistory by the Colorado State Museum).

Also, I remember going out west of Lincoln to count the most-numerous neck vertebrae (or maybe just longest) Plesiosaur in situ in Bert Schultz' Paleontology class with Grad Assistant Larry Martin (he of the later saber-toothed [tiger] fame). Also, I later saw Anthropologist Jane [Hold] Kelley (Dave's wife, and her father's "Tall Candle" book [A Tall Candle: The Personal Chronicle of Yaqui Indian by Rosalio Moises and Jane Hold], which she finished, about the Arizona and Sonora Yaqui, and whom I soon met in University of Arizona grad school) again, when she was the President of the Canadian Archaeological Association [Jane and David Kelley went on to become founding members of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calgary (Canada)]. Her organizers of their "50th Anniversary" of their "Iroquoian Archaeology Symposium", in 1993 in Montreal, had Bruce Trigger and me be their two co-discussants.

Thiessen: I worked as a part-time assistant for Jane Kelley when she was curator of the Anthro part of the State Museum. The collection was stored in the basement of Andrews Hall. She introduced me to the Yaqui man (whose name I don' remember) one time when she was interviewing him there. I was sorry to see the Kelley's move to Canada. I remember when Dorinda was the lab TA in the basement of Burnett Hall under Holder. Holder expected that to be a virtually full-time job outside of her classes. When Caldwell became chair, he told Dorinda to post her time as two hours per week. She was elated.

I googled on Ole Barjenbruch and got several hits about his death. He lived in Mexico, MO, but died in Columbia, MO while attending a Bianchi shooting contest. Interestingly, Ray Wood served as an invited judge for several of those contests. [...] To my knowledge, Carlyle Smith was never at Nebraska. He was a graduate student of Strong's at Columbia University in the 1930s and probably a faculty member at the University of Kansas in 1965.

For the list of 1965 faculty, don't forget David Eyde. I remember Terry Steinacher and Tom Riley as graduate students in 1965, and maybe Gayle Carlson (though he might have graduated by that time), but I don't recall seeing Tom Roll. Perhaps Tom had graduated and was working for the National Parks Service at Pipestone in New Mexico by 1965? There must have been more grad students--can you think of others from the Kansas or Sterns Creek field schools? Another, undergrad student from the Old Days just came to mind--a girl named Schroeder?

Alice Kehoe: I recall that you, Bruce, was an eager undergraduate who had discovered Anthropology and wanted to found a club of students. This in a Department where [collegiality was not encouraged]. The Department offered only an MA but there were still few departments of Anthropology in the country. The Department had five faculty plus Pres: me, Dave Kelley, Paul Turner (linguist), Norman Thomas [cultural anthropologist], and I'm not sure whether Dick [Krause] had an appointment or was a sort of postdoc (he was still writing his dissertation). We had an outstanding group of M.A. students: Tom Riley, John Eberhardt, Juris Zarins, come to mind, also a young woman [Dorinda Partsch].

After we moved from Lincoln, I had no further connection with University of Nebraska- Lincoln at all.

Thiessen: I dug out my transcript at looked at it, painful though that was. It wasn't much help in recalling faculty members from the 1965-1967 period. It shows that I took General Anthropology both semesters of 1965-1966. I remember David Eyde was the instructor, though I don't recall him being around the Department after that year. Once or twice Dick Carter, a linguist, subbed for him in his absence. I saw Eyde's obituary in the SAA [Society for American Archaeology] newsletter several years ago. It was written by him before his death, so his wife had only to add the finishing touches, like date of death.

During my sophomore year (1966-1967), I took Intro to Prehistory and South American Indians during the fall semester, but I don't recall who the instructors were. During the spring semester I took Intro to Physical Anthro (from Dick Krause) and North American Indians (from Alice Kehoe). By the way, I don't recall the reference, but Kehoe published a retrospective on her career, including her three years at Lincoln [The book, released by The University of Nebraska Press in October 2022 is titled Girl Archaeologist: Sisterhood in a Sexist Profession.] During my junior year (1967-1968) I took Culture History of Nuclear America from Dave Kelley both semesters.

I took Advanced Prehistory during the second semester of the 1968-1969 year, from Dale Henning so that must have been his first semester at UNL. The summer of 1969 was Dale's field school at the Broken Kettle site north of Sioux City. I believe you were on Preston Holder's field school at the Sterns Creek site in the summer of 1968, along with Bob Nickel. John Weymouth's first offering of Physical Methods in Archaeology was during the first semester of 1971-1972. By the way, I took Intro to Linguistics during the second semester of 1969-1970, which was Jim Gibson's first course offering [Gibson did not officially have his PhD until 1973].

Rippeteau: (to Thiessen) You thought that the AG [AnthroGroup] was not necessarily an official university organization. In his 06 May letter Dick Krause remembers--and I think it so-- that we were actually a legal student organization. If then so, this may be why I thought we had a Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary.

Rippeteau recounted previously that in, one of her classes, Kehoe recounted the story of how one of her children stepped on a new type of projectile point at a Great Plains archaeological site that Kehoe and her husband named Avonlea.

Kehoe: Avonlea was named before we got to Saskatchewan, after nearby town. Tom [Thomas F. Kehoe, fellow archaeologist, and Alice Kehoe's then husband] named one type [of projectile point] Samantha after our dear Dog Sam, it was a type that he could see as somewhat distinctive after he laid out all the lithics from a couple major bison drive sites in the province. Maybe you remember that our David, age 3 that summer, used to catch a salamander when the herd came over the ridge into the ravine where we were working. He would tie a rope around it and walk it like a dog around the site. One sad day, one of the big young men on our little crew stepped back from a wall he was troweling, his big boot right on the salamander, killing it. David's first sight of death, he was devastated. No more pet salamander for a day. Funny how little stories get remembered.

I think it was a formally accepted student organization. A student "club."

Thiessen: You may be right about the "officialness" of the Anthro Group. During my year as president, I didn't have any contact with university officials other than faculty members who I invited to speak. We may have had a vice-president to fill in at meetings for an absent president. And I don' remember anyone as the treasurer, although as John [Ehrenhard] reminded us, we did take contributions to buy coffee. This is all kind of hazy to me.

Peter Zandbergen: Decades past, as an Anthropology student '71- '74, I do recall an Anthro "group". The group ebbed and flowed --- all appreciated participating.
I recall the group was an effective "bridge" between gaps between undergrads, grad students, faculty. Offered a positive "melting pot" opportunity whereby folks could percolate common interests, goals, and hopes. As an undergrad, for me, added continuity "sticky glue" perspectives beyond what any one of us were frontline syllabus/project consumed by.

Kehoe: Ed Fry was a physical anthropologist, I think, though not sure. He had just left when I came, when Tom [Kehoe, her then husband] got his job at the state history museum [Director of the Nebraska State Historical Society Museum]. He [Fry] had resigned in the summer and in September, [Preston] Holder [the Chair of Anthropology] was desperate to get someone to fill in teaching. He wanted his wife, Joyce Wike, to teach but the nepotism rule in place in universities then would not permit that. Pres [ton Holder] swore that so long as Joyce was not teaching, he would never put any woman on contract (tenure-track). That was part of why we left. No future for me, and Tom disliked the State Museum job that was all administration and no research. We also hated the climate, too hot and humid. Tom Roll was there c. 1966-68 as he was in my classes. No one seems to remember Paul Turner the linguist and Norman Thomas the cultural anthropologist [were also on the faculty].

We ALL FIVE left in 1968, the last year it was easy to get another good job in anthropology in academia: Dave Kelley, me, Turner, Thomas, and Dick Krause unless Dick had already left (don't remember exactly). University then, having such good reason, removed Pres[ton Holder] from his position and moved him to the Geography Building, and hired all new Anthropology faculty. Mary Lou (do I remember her name correctly? Mary _ _ _ ) the Department Secretary ran the department all was then OK.

Rippeteau: Thank you for your continuing memories of UNL Anthro in the 1965 period! Yes, I do remember Tom Roll and his smile. If I come across a AAA [American Anthropological Association] Departmental Guide of the period, we can check faculty and Mary Lou's name.

As for Paul Turner, after graduating, I went to the University of Arizona Anthropology program and there was a Paul Turner. Surely the same one, but neither of us--as I remember--thought of meeting in Nebraska. Paul was a Christian documenter of linguistics, for South America I think, and was a very calm, quiet, learned guy whom I certainly admired at AZ. Had he, maybe, left UNL by Fall 1965 when I arrived?

I do remember Ed Fry, but the Physical Anthro that I did knew was, rather, Alexander Sonek. On short notice, in January 1968, I graduated and left for graduate school at the University of Arizona, so maybe did not know all the changes and I surely was out of touch before Pres [ton holder] was removed and the several of you split! I can well envision the State Museum and Tom [Kehoe], but must say the current State Archaeologist Rob Bozell, is totally tops and out doing research.

Kehoe: In order: Ed Fry left summer of 1965; I was hired when we arrived in September 1965 as temporary staff to fill his empty teaching slots. So, neither of us knew him.
[Yes, that is the] same Paul Turner, a fine linguist, ex-missionary who woke up to damage his Evangelical Christianity missions were doing. He was in the Department 1965-68 so far as I recall, during those years it was D. Kelley, P. Turner, N. Thomas, me, Dick Krause. I suppose Sonek was there but I don't remember him at all, or who taught Physical (anthropology). You left in January '68 and it was in the Spring of that year that all five of us got other jobs [Kelley, Turner, Thomas, Kehoe, and Krause]. Dick Krause might have stayed on a little as he was married to Janet at the time. All of us resigning and leaving, gave the University reason to remove him.

I'm quite sure that it was you [Rippeteau], you alone, that started the Anthro Club or Group because we faculty remarked about this eager undergrad, only a junior, organized this and the older students had not. [This] boded well for your career, with all the new organizing you accomplished over the years.
Yes, Rob Bozell has been doing excellent research for many years.

Rippeteau: Your remembering the several dates of who-all "left" sure simplifies my memory of why I did know, or did not know, of certain people or events. And, yes, I probably did start the A-Group alone, with Dick as Advisor. I have a history of starting things but sharing by asking others to join as if co-originators. For example, I started the National Association of State Archaeologists, in ca. 1977 when I had been hired to be the first in Colorado, and so I had asked Dave Madsen, State Archaeologist of Utah, to join me, which he did, as I called and hosted the first meetings and populating elections.

Ashley Novak: I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to the Reller gathering around Orthodox Easter and have the chance to meet you! The group we have for AnthroGroup is pretty great! I love the challenge of trying to trace the history of AnthroGroup through the years! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I have only been a part of AnthroGroup since my freshman year (Fall of 2019). It was pretty informal during that time but there was a decent amount of structure in terms of an executive board and some great guest speakers. As I've gotten more involved, I'm hoping to make it more formal and get some great involvement and opportunities for members, non-members, and alum! Of course, we welcome all to our monthly meetings and I would love to have you come! If you would like, I'd be honored to have you perhaps come to speak!

Rippeteau: Although we have not met, I am retired from some academia and a lot of government, and having returned to Lincoln have sought, with others, to assist the Anthropology Chairs/SGIS Director with new NU Foundation "Excellence" funding, Alumni contacts, and Free Advice. You might could peruse the "Readings" I have gathered and emailed back to participating colleagues so far. As I have to date discovered from student colleagues and faculty remembrances, those 1965+ formation years, and afterwards, were both interesting and tumultuous times, not only nationally but right here in our own Department and lives.

Since then, the Anthropology Group has indeed amounted to an important part of student and faculty departmental life. To wit, its unbroken story deserves to be told, and such a summary may well assist our 5.5 decades of alumni to further connect with us up- and down streamers.