Obituary, W. Raymond Wood, 1931–2020

Abstract

Plains archaeology lost one of its most devoted and accomplished practitioners with the passing of W. Raymond Wood (Figure 1) on October 2, 2020. Ray made many significant contributions to several academic disciplines and received many honors during his long career as an anthropologist. Most notable of these were his achievements in archaeology, the primary focus of his anthropological interests, but he was also responsible for many interdisciplinary contributions to other fields of academic endeavor, including general anthropology, ethnohistorical research, history, historical cartography, and Quaternary studies. Ray Wood’s life and professional career may be glimpsed through two retrospective articles he published in 1994 and 2006 (the former co-authored with J.J. Hoffman) and, most comprehensively, his 2011 autobiography. A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood, is a fascinating story of his life and professional career. It is an absorbing read that illuminates Ray’s complex personal and professional history, with many insights and much humor. Throughout his long career, Ray performed service work to advance archaeology, historic preservation, and interdisciplinary research. Among other professional activities, he served as book review editor (1969–1971), journal editor (1972–1974), and memoir editor (1974–1977) for the Plains Anthropologist; co-chair of the 45th Plains Anthropological Conference; editor of American Antiquity (1987–1990); editor of The Missouri Archaeologist (1990–2016); two terms on the Missouri State Advisory Council for Historic Preservation (1973–1977, 1995–1998); and in many other advisory, consultant, and editorial capacities for various organizations and professional publications. His academic achievements earned him many honors, including an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Nebraska (1988); the second Plains Anthropological Society Distinguished Service Award (1992); the American Quaternary Association’s Distinguished Service Award (2007); and the Society for American Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2011), among others. His co-authorship of Karl Bodmer’s America Revisited earned him a Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and a High Plains Book Award for Art and Photography from the Billings Public Library, both in 2014. In addition to formal honors, Ray received many tributes and reflections on his career from colleagues and former students during his life and since his passing, including tribute issues of the Plains Anthropologist (no. 210, 2009); the Missouri Archaeological Society Quarterly (vol. 38, no. 1, 2021); We Proceeded On (vol. 47, no. 1, 2021); the SAA Archaeological Record (vol. 21, no. 2, 2021); and Quaternary Times (vol. 42, no. 2, 2020), the newsletter of the American Quaternary Association.