Lillian Trager

RACINE - Lillian Trager Ph.D. died on Friday, November 10, 2006, at her Racine home. She was born on April 15, 1947, at Princeton, N.J., the daughter of William and Ida (nee: Sosnow) Trager. She was Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside for over 30 years and was the former Director of the university's Center for International Studies. Throughout her Parkside career, Lillian promoted international curriculum emphases and programming. Lillian's biologist father joked that she had somehow been imprinted at age 11 to Nigeria when the family spent six months there. Her lifelong passion became cultural anthropology, particularly the role of women in Yoruba culture and art. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. and from the University of Washington with a Ph.D., both in cultural anthropology. She returned to Nigeria in the early 1970's to do her doctoral fieldwork. She continued to return there to conduct research, vacation, lead student tours, and teach almost yearly for the last 20 years. She also worked in Nigeria for two years as Program Officer for the Ford Foundation in the late 1980's and received Fulbright awards for teaching and exchange programs with Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. While doing her dissertation fieldwork, the market women Lillian was studying nicknamed her 'Abeke,' which in Yoruba means someone to be petted and taken care of, which they did. Lillian, in turn, had nurtured countless anthropology and international studies students at University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Lillian had been described as maintaining a 150% pace of work and as having a deep love of life. Her academic work was her avocation, enriched by summers at her family summer cottage in Woods Hole, Mass. Her concern for her students, for international cultural emphases, and for close family and friends, will be remembered and carried on. E ku ise, Abeke! (Well done, Lillian!) Survivors include her husband, Richard Ammann; brother, Leslie Trager of New York City, N.Y.; sister, Carolyn Burr of Vancouver, B.C., Canada; nephew, Robert Trager of Los Angeles, Calif.; nieces, Suzanne and Michelle Burr of Vancouver, B.C., Canada; and adopted student assistant, Harrison Idowu of Racine. As Lillian had requested, there will be no visitation; a simple Memorial service at the Mound Cemetery Chapel followed by burial at Mound Cemetery will be held on Monday, November 13, 2006, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lillian Trager Memorial International Studies Stipend Fund at University of Wisconsin-Parkside. MARESH-MEREDITH AND ACKLAM FUNERAL HOME 803 Main Street 634-7888