Jack Richard Stauder

1939 - 2018

Jack Richard Stauder of New Bedford, Massachusetts, died peacefully after a period of failing health, on December 3, 2018 at The Arbors in Amherst, MA.
Jack was born March 2, 1939 to John Richard "Dick" and Hilma (Johnson) Stauder in Pueblo, Colorado. His childhood was spent in Fowler, Colorado, living in town in the winter and on the family ranch in the summer. It was on the ranch in the summers interacting with ranch workers that he developed his love of different people and cultures, something he would pursue throughout his life. The family moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico when he was an early teen.
He graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1957 and earned a scholarship to attend Harvard College. After his freshman year at Harvard, he took a leave of absence, during which he did construction work & enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves. He bought a used motorcycle and rode it across the country to finish his undergraduate education at Harvard, graduating in 1962 although choosing 1961 as his social class.
After Harvard, he studied cultural anthropology at Cambridge University in England on a Marshall Scholarship. While traveling to find a suitable research subject, he married Wunderley Rich of Albany, NY & Radcliffe College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963. The couple returned to Ethiopia in 1965 and lived for two years with the Majangir tribal people of Southwestern Ethiopia, doing research for his doctorate. After having two sons, the couple divorced in 1974 but remained friends.
Jack earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1968, and returned to the United States where he taught Social Anthropology at Harvard University. His course Soc Rel 149, "Radical Perspectives in Social Change" was "the biggest course at Harvard" but proved controversial. His arrest after occupying University Hall with students in 1969 led to his eventual split from Harvard. He went on to teach briefly at Northeastern University before finding a home at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, remaining there for over 40 years as a professor of sociology and anthropology. He was a dedicated and serious teacher who enjoyed working with each generation of young students. He reluctantly retired in 2018 and moved to western Massachusetts to be closer to his family.
Jack's lifelong love of travel and adventure took him to all 50 states and more than 100 countries around the world. Never one for popular tourist sites, he traveled to explore odd corners of the globe and interact with local people and their culture. He often returned to the American southwest where he always felt a close connection. These bonds and his explorations culminated in his recently published book "The Blue and the Green: A Cultural Ecological History of an Arizona Ranching Community."
Jack is survived by his two sons, Sam and his wife Deborah of Holyoke, MA, and Jeff and his wife Helen of Florence, MA, and his grandchildren, Emma, Olivia, Nicholas, and James. He also leaves his sister Kathryn Stahmann of Sedona, AZ and his nephews Justin and Lance Bridges and their families.
Memorial donations may be made in Jack's name to the Unbound Child Sponsorship Charity of Kansas City, KS at www.unbound.org.