DIANA KAMILLI

KAMILLI--Diana Chapman. Diana Chapman Kamilli, Scientist and Educator, dies at 81. Known for her contri-butions to archeological geology and education, Diana Kamilli died on August 2nd in Tucson, AZ, after a short illness. After a decade as a teacher of geology at Rutgers, Vassar, CCNY, and Wellesley, she joined the department of anthropology at Harvard and the History of Sciences department at MIT where she brought her geologic skills to bear on important archaeological studies of early Mesopotamia and other areas in the Middle East. Her most important contribution was the discovery that Ubayd ceramics, previously thought to have been traded from city to city at the early date of ca.3500 BCE, were actually produced by itinerant potters who brought their techniques there from the Fertile Crescent. She worked on Arabian Peninsula geology and pre- Columbian archaeological sites in the American southwest while her husband was with the U.S. Geological Survey in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and then in Tucson. An outstanding teacher as spoken and written of by both her former students and her children, she shared her love of the natural world with all comers. She inspired many of her students, including her eventual husband, to consider graduate school and a career in geology. Diana Chapman Kamilli was born in Manhattan on September 5, 1941. She was the daughter of Daniel Knowlton Chapman, a partner in Frances I. Dupont, a brokerage firm, and Carroll Howard Ferguson. She made her debut in 1959, the same year she graduated from Miss Porter's School. In 1963, she graduated magna cum laude from Vassar with a BA degree in geology and received her Ph.D. in 1968, also in geology, from Rutgers. The following year she married Robert Joseph Kamilli. She is survived by their daughter, Ann Chapman Kamilli and son, Robert Chapman Kamilli. Diana is also survived by her daughter-in-law, Corinna Busiglio Kamilli, grandson, Theodore Chapman Kamilli. In accordance with her love of education, donations may be made in Diana's name to Imago Dei Middle School, P.O. Box 3056, Tucson, AZ 85702. Imago Dei is a free, private school exclusively serving children from low-income families and invested in breaking the cycle of poverty through education.