Frederick K. Errington

Frederick K. Errington
Frederick K. Errington of Amherst, Massachusetts died suddenly of a heart attack on Jan. 9, 2021. He was 80 years old. He leaves behind a distinguished legacy as an anthropologist and teacher. He was also a naturalist, car fanatic and handyman with tools. He will be remembered for his kindness, generosity and wit by friends, students and colleagues all over the world.
Fred was born and raised in Ames, Iowa, where his father, the renowned ecologist Paul L. Errington, was professor of wildlife biology at Iowa State University. Through him, Fred acquired a lifelong interest in wetlands and prairie ecology as well a respect for the proper handling of guns. His mother, Carolyn Errington, was a redoubtable figure in Ames. She held a law degree, was an accomplished pianist, taught English writing at Iowa State and was an assiduous editor of both her husband's and her son's writings.
Fred Errington earned his B.A. at Wesleyan University (1962) and his Ph.D. in anthropology at Cornell University (1970). During his distinguished career Fred held extended appointments at Amherst College (MA), Keene State College (NH), Mount Holyoke College (MA) - as Five-College Professor - and finally, Trinity College (CT), where he was a distinguished professor from 1992 until his formal retirement in 2005. Over the years he also held appointments at the University of Western Ontario, Australian National University and University of Auckland.
Fred's research had an extraordinary ethnographic range, including work in Montana and South Dakota as well as in Indonesia, Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. He authored two books before he met the love of his life, fellow anthropologist Deborah Gewertz of Amherst College. These were Karavar: Masks and Power in a Melanesian Ritual (1974) and Manners and Meaning in West Sumatra: the Social Context of Consciousness (1984). He also published two important articles on auctions and rodeos in rural Montana. But for the most part, once they married, in 1983, they wrote, as well as lived, as an inseparable couple. Over the course of nearly four decades, the two of them explored issues of ecology, commodity agriculture and food consumption, social class, gender, tourism and art.
Together, they poured forth a remarkable succession of books, articles, conference papers and lectures. Often writing side by side at one keyboard , they published dozens of scholarly papers in refereed journals as well as seven highly regarded books: Cultural Alternatives and a Feminist Anthropology (1989), Twisted Histories, Altered Contexts (1991, 1994), Articulating Change in the "Last Unknown" (1995), Emerging Class in Papua New Guinea (1999), Yali's Question (2004), Cheap Meat (2010) and The Noodle Narratives (2013). They made their last research trip to Oceania in 2019.
In recent years, Fred and Deborah engaged closely with the land of Fred's youth, the South Dakota prairie, where they dove deeply into issues of political ecology, endangered species and rural values.
Fred was a lifelong car buff. While in graduate school at Cornell, he and his close friend, Angus Trowbridge, traveled the race car circuit of upstate New York. Angus raced the car; Fred comprised the pit crew. In 1994 he fulfilled a boyhood dream by attending the Indianapolis 500 race. During the weekend he toured the Indianapolis Speedway Hall of Fame Museum and spent three days immersed in beer, rock n'roll, gasoline fumes and chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. He made no secret of his love of basic American comfort food, though as anyone can attest who has been to the legendary dinner parties he and his wife gave, he also appreciated haute cuisine.
As friends gathered (remotely) this past week to remember and honor Fred, they shared countless stories. Many of these concerned Fred's gift for listening and caring, for making others feel "seen." Fred was also a true feminist, a man of grace and substance who respected and valued women.
Other stories noted his passion for tools and for fixing things. A youth spent around hunters and mechanics had its lasting effects. One need only venture off the kitchen of their house to find a barn-like garage, stuffed to the rafters with the old saws, lathes, drills and other power tools. Here, Fred was in his element. It was not uncommon for him to prepare his former students for real life after college with a gift comprising a comprehensive tool kit or a rebuilt chainsaw.
Fred Errington, 1940-2021, is survived by his wife, Deborah Gewertz and by his older brother, Peter Errington of Washington, DC. Fred's stepdaughter, Alexis Gewertz Shepard, died tragically in an accident in 1998.
Final arrangements are being handled by Douglass Funeral Service of Amherst Mass.