Dorothy K. "Dotty" Billings

1933 - 2022

Dorothy "Dotty" K. Billings
June 17, 1933 - August 12, 2022
Wichita, Kansas - Dorothy "Dotty" K. Billings, PhD, 89, emerita professor of Anthropology at Wichita State University, died August 12, 2022, after a brief illness. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 17, 1933. Daughter of Dr. Neal and Gladys Billings, Dotty was preceded in death by her parents and brother Tom. She is survived by her husband, Jim Phillips, her niece Bridget (Kaz) Bilinski and nephew Bruce (Emily) Billings (his children Sandy Billings, Kathy Medina, Bruce Jr., Eric and Erika Billings), and by hundreds of friends and acquaintances she touched deeply in her long life of inquiry, service, and advocacy for the rights of the less fortunate.
Dotty taught Anthropology at Wichita State University for 44 years. She studied under Margaret Mead at Columbia University and earned her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Sydney (Australia). She spent many years doing field work on the islands of New Hanover and New Ireland (part of New Guinea) which led to a book titled "Cargo Cult as Theater: Political Performance in the Pacific." She authored over 30 articles and delivered papers in at least 18 countries. Many of her presentations were before the International Commission on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development (of which she was co-chair) of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.
As an advocate of civil rights, she participated in the Freedom Rides of the 1960's. She was also a reliable supporter of LGBT rights, employee rights, women's equality, democratic socialism, the peace movement, and movement for the rights of indigenous peoples. Hundreds of students benefited from her passionate teaching and sage advice.
Dotty served on the Boards of the local ACLU, the Black Historical Society, and the Global Learning Center of Wichita of which she was one of the founding members. She served as precinct committeewoman in the Democratic party for 34 years.
One of the most remarkable things about Dorothy was the immense range of her friendships and collaborations. For example, at WSU her friends included colleagues from chemistry, psychology, philosophy, history, engineering, education, women's studies, physics, mathematics, French, English, fine arts, theater, political science, sociology, criminal justice, biology, health professions, and business. She was close to Mennonite pacifists, disabled Wichitans, Maori women from New Zealand, Democratic party activists, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant clergy, local atheists and agnostics, Palestinians, and academics from Russia to Zimbabwe. In later years, some of her closest friends were the children of her early Wichita friends. She was the kind of person who one minute would be talking to a senior University administrator (maybe chewing them out about something that needed doing or inviting them to lunch with "the gang," or more likely both) and the next minute would be chatting away with a janitor, and then inviting a passing student to have lunch with her. She could get angry about injustices, but never looked down her nose at anybody. She gave money to students in need, gave rides to people dependent on wheelchairs, and gave of herself to just about everybody she met. The people she was most likely to be skeptical about were not the poor, forgotten, and persecuted, but the established, powerful, and self-important. She loved animals too, and they liked herâ€"ask any of the dog- or cat-people she knew.
One of the enduring hallmarks of Dorothy's life is that anything she advocated for she also worked hard to make happen. At WSU she not only scolded her faculty colleagues for the lack of international perspectives in the curriculum, she pushed and pushed to get "global" courses into the curriculum, most notably an interdisciplinary "Global Issues" course that eventually involved dozens of WSU faculty over many years. Her arguments for a more diverse faculty were backed up by sometimes bruising efforts to get "diverse" candidates seen and hired, and she befriended women and minority faculty campus-wide to help create a welcoming culture for them.
She was a professional scholar, teacher, author, civic activist, advocate for the disadvantaged, crusader for peace and global understanding, wife, close and loving friend of her unofficial Wichita "family," and her other families, mentor, guardian angel, animal lover, and Democrat.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Global Learning Center, 2712 N Beacon Hill Ct., Wichita, KS 67220 https://www.globallearningcenterwichita.org/glc-payments- ; or Cultural Survival Inc (a non-profit magazine) 2067 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140 https://www.culturalsurvival.org/donate.
A Celebration of Life and lunch are scheduled for Thursday, September 29th from 11:30-1:30 at the Marcus Welcome Center at Wichita State University (21st and Mike Oatman Drive).
Seating is limited - Please RSVP attendance at beckybouska@hotmail.com or call at 316-648-6406 if attending in person, please bring/wear a mask.
Attire - Attire will be Dr. Billings festive â€" colorful, patterned, cultural, etc. Whatever brings you joy.
Zoom Attendees â€" please send your name and email address to - beckybouska@hotmail.com.