Dr. William Atlas Longacre II

Dr. William Atlas Longacre II, 77, eminent archaeologist and former Head of Anthropology (1989-1998) at the University of Arizona, died November 18, 2015 after a brief illness. Bill was raised in Houghton, Michigan, began his university education at the College of Mining and Technology (now Michigan Tech), and then transferred to the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, earning a BA in anthropology in 1959. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1963. In 1964 Bill was hired as an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, rising to the rank of professor in 1974. He was appointed Head of Anthropology in 1989 and then as the Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor in 1998. Bill retired in 2004, capping a 40-year career at UA. Bill published numerous seminal works, including his most famous, Anthropology as Archaeology: A Case Study (1970). This groundbreaking piece of research reconstructed prehistoric social organization at a 12th to mid-13th century AD Ancestral Pueblo community in eastern Arizona. Bill later directed the UA Archaeological Field School at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona from 1964-1978. In 1973, he initiated a long-term ethno-archaeological research program among the Kalinga people of the Philippines. In a career spanning 50 years, Longacre published nine volumes and authored more than 60 papers. He held a number of visiting academic appointments but was most proud of the more than 30 years he was affiliated with the University of the Philippines. Bill Longacre was universally known for his sense of humor, graciousness, and generosity. Throughout his long career, he demonstrated how teaching and research could be productively merged and was an effective leader at UA and in his profession. There will be a celebration of Bill Longacre's life at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2016 in the Center for English as a Second Language on the UA campus. A graveside memorial service will be held in Houghton on Saturday, May 21, 2016. Arrangements by DESERT SUNSET FUNERAL HOME.