William Atlas Longacre II was born on December 16, 1937 in Hancock, Michigan. His parents were William, a Professor, and Doris Longacre. William was a student at the Michigan College of Mining and Technology from 1955-56. He received his Bachelors Degree in 1959 at the University of Illinois in 1959. He then went to the University of Chicago where he received an Masters Degree in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1963.
Longacre was first employed at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois as a Field Assistant in Anthropology from 1959-61, and then as a Research Assistant from 1961-64. In 1964, he became the Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois in Urbana. In the summer of 1964, he was the Visiting Lecturer at Chicago Undergraduate Division. After that, he moved to the University of Arizona, Tucson where he is currently employed.
He began teaching in Arizona in 1964 as an Assistant Professor, and was an Associate Professor of Anthropology from 1968-74. In 1966, he also assumed the role of Director of Archaeological Field School. From 1971-72, he was a Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University. He was also a Visiting Professor at the University of Philippines from 1975-76 and 1979-80. In 1981, he became an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii.
Books Written or Edited by Longacre:
Reconstructing Prehistoric Pueblo Societies, University of New Mexico Press,in 1970
A Tale of Two Caves, Harper Press in 1972.
A Pleistocene Hunting Society, E.N. Wilmsen and Lindenmeier, Harper Press in 1974.
The Lost Civilization The Story of the Classic Maya, T.P. Culbert, Harper Press. World Archaeology in 1974
Contemporary Authors, Volumes 29-32. Editors Clare D. Kinsman and Mary Ann Tennenhouse. Gale Research Company. c 1972.
Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series Volume 12. Editor Lindia Metzger. Associate Editors Peter M. Gareffa, Deborah A. Straub. Gale Research Company. c 1984.
Written by Students in an Introduction to Anthropology Class, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota 2000