Gordon Willey was born on March 7, 1913 in the small town of Chariton, Iowa. His parents were Frank and Agnes Willey. His father was a pharmacist and his mother was a homemaker. He was married on September 17, 1938 to Katherine Whaley. He had two children, Alexandra and Winston.
Willey attended the University of Arizona to get his Bachelors Degree in Anthropology in 1935 and his Masters Degree in 1936. He continued his education and got his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1942. After getting his Ph.D., he was an administrator at Columbia University in New York from 1942 to 1943. He then started working at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. as an anthropologist in the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1943 to 1950. He then decided to go back to teaching, and started back at Harvard University in Cambridge. There he became the Bowditch Professor of Archeology from 1950 to 1987.
He was a Professor at Harvard University. He was a member of archeological expeditions to Peru and Panama from 1941 through 1952; British Honduras from 1953 through 1956; Nicaragua in 1959 and 1961; and Guatemala in 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964 - 1968.
Some of his awards include Viking Fund Medal in Archeology in 1953. Huyley Medal, Royal Anthropologist Institute in 1984, the Golden Plate Award, Alfred V. Kidder Medal for achievement in American Archeology and many more. He was a leading archeologist and theorist of the New World prehistory known particularly for his studies in the pattern of settlements of native societies. He was also a well-known writer and some of his books include Excavations in the Chancey Valley, Excavations in Southeast Florida, and History of American Archeology. He was also a member of the American Anthropological Association, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Royal Anthropological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He died of heart failure on April 28, in Cambridge. He was 89 years old.
References:
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Date, “The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography” Cambridge University Press, 1995 New York, NY.
R.R. Bowker’s, “American Men & Women of Science 1998-1999 Vol. 7” New Providence, New Jersey.
Written by Mathew Okeson
Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007