Obituary, George Carr Frison (1924–2020)

Abstract

The entire Plains anthropological community lost a giant with the passing of George C. Frison on September 7, 2020. His life story and professional accomplishments are near legendary, especially among his students. Doc, as he was fondly called, was born on November 11, 1924, and raised by his grandparents on the family ranch near Tensleep, Wyoming. His Depression-era childhood, spent pushing cows, riding the range, and finding artifacts along the way, exerted profound influence on his life and professional career. It was through this experience that Doc gained a deep understanding of landscape, learned to hunt to feed his family, and developed what would prove to be an insatiable curiosity about the ancient inhabitants and cultures of the region. Doc was a 17-year-old high school senior when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He wanted to enlist, but his grandmother would not sign the permission papers. After high school graduation in 1942, he enrolled at the University of Wyoming (UW) until he turned 18 and then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After training in gunnery control systems, George spent the remainder of World War II in the South Pacific. I never heard Doc talk much about the war, but he was intensely proud of his service. His birthday, which coincided with Veteran’s Day, was the one day of the year that he did not come into his lab at UW. In October 2011, George traveled to Washington, DC, on the Honor Flight with otherWorldWar II veterans. Though he did not say much (typically), it was clearly an important and a moving experience for him. George returned toWyoming in 1946, happy to leave the Navy and bouts of seasickness. He soon became reacquainted with June Glanville, who proved to be the love of his life. They married that same year and moved back to the ranch. In 1956, they adopted their daughter Carol. George and June were married just shy of 65 years; she passed shortly before their anniversary in 2011. Ranching in the postwar years was difficult, despite improvements such as electricity, mechanized equipment and insulated boots, and the family ran an outfitting business for additional income. Doc’s interest in archaeology also grew. He visited the Horner site excavations and did some of his own work at several rockshelters near the ranch. He began communicating with Marie Wormington at the Denver Museum of Natural History, doing occasional fieldwork with Bill Mulloy at UW, joined the Society for American Archaeology and the Wyoming Archaeological Society, and took artifacts to the 1958 Plains Conference. Doc was badgered by Preston Holder and Don Lehmer at that Plains Conference to go to university. After considerable introspection, George and June gradually reached the decision to sell the ranch and move to Laramie, where George would reenroll at the University of Wyoming and start the journey of becoming a professional archaeologist.