Eugene Giles

1933 - 2023

Eugene Giles

June 30, 1933 ~

December 31, 2023

Champaign, IL-Eugene Giles - kind, generous, and beloved husband, brother, father, "Farfar," friend, teacher, and mentor - died peacefully in the comfort of his home surrounded by family on Sunday December 31, 2023, after a remarkable life.

Gene was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 30, 1933, the son of George Eugene Giles and Eleanor Clark Giles, and graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City in 1951. He attended Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude in 1955 with a concentration in anthropology. He earned his master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1956.

Gene served two years of active duty (1956-58) in the U.S. Army. After training as a teletype operator, he was sent to a unit in Germany, which, it happens, had no teletype machine. As a battalion clerk, however, and having managed to obtain only a civilian driver's license, he was able to visit some fifteen countries (and East Berlin) in his trusty Volkswagen during his 18 months overseas. In 1958 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps in the U.S. Army Reserve.

After his military service, Gene returned to Harvard University to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology. His pre-dissertation research-skeletal identification using statistical procedures-pioneered the field that became forensic anthropology. His anthropological field research involved 13 months during 1962-63 and 4 months in 1968 in Papua New Guinea and the summers of 1965 and 1966 in Ticul, Yucatán, Mexico and the Solomon Islands, respectively.

In 1964 Gene became an Instructor in anthropology at the University of Illinois and taught there for two years while finishing his doctoral dissertation. Two weeks before the fall semester began, Gene married the love of his life, Inga, a native of Overkalix, Sweden, in the First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City. They met through mutual friends while Gene was pursuing his research at Harvard and Inga was working at Boston University. On being awarded the Ph.D. in 1966, Gene accepted an assistant professorship in anthropology at Harvard and taught there for four years. During that time, Gene and Inga spent a year in Canberra while Gene held a National Science Foundation fellowship at the Australian National University. While there, the couple welcomed their first child, Eric. Their second son, Edward, was born in 1970 just before Gene returned as an associate professor in anthropology to the University of Illinois. He continued teaching at Illinois until his retirement in 1999 as Professor of Anthropology Emeritus.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities in the Department of Anthropology, Gene served as Department Head for five years (1975-80) and as Acting Head for several shorter periods. He mentored eight Ph.D. graduate students in physical anthropology, many of whom became like a second family. He also became a half-time Associate Dean in the Graduate College (1986-89) and then in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1995-99). Between 1983 and 1990 he was the University Coordinator for the Illinois Junior Academy of Science, a state-wide high school organization.

Gene was one of the group of twelve that founded the Physical Anthropology section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 1972. He was also a founding member of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology in 1978 and served on its Board of Directors for six years. His expertise led to numerous papers and presentations, including at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and expert witness testimony at a triple murder trial in Chicago in 1976. He was given the T. Dale Stewart award in 2004 by the Physical Anthropology section of the Academy for his contributions.

Gene was also a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He most enjoyed participating in the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, which he joined while still in the Army and over the years was elected vice president and then president for a two year term, 1981-83. The Association honored him with its Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Through 59 years of marriage, Gene and Inga remained deeply in love, traveling the world for research and leisure, and cultivating a wonderful group of friends, former students, colleagues, and peers. Gene delighted in nothing more than spending time with friends and family, entertaining all with amazing and humorous stories of the couple's adventures. He especially cherished time spent with his five grandchildren, who brought him immeasurable pride and joy. He will be sorely missed.

Gene is survived by his wife Inga, sons Eric (Sarah) and Edward (Kate), and grandchildren Max, Sam, Ian, Eleanor, and Josephine. He was preceded in death by his parents and was recently deeply saddened by the loss of his younger brother, Clark Giles, of Salt Lake City, earlier in 2023, and sister-in-law Nancy, who passed in 2019.

Visitation will take place on Saturday, January 13, 9 a.m. at Morgan Memorial Home in Savoy, IL, followed by a memorial service at 10:30. Interment will follow at Mount Hope Cemetery in Champaign. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a contribution to the University of Illinois Foundation Eugene Giles Biological Anthropology Fund in memory of Eugene Giles , the University of Illinois Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, or Friends of WILL Public Radio.

Condolences may be offered at www.morganmemorialhome.com.