UW Anthropologist George Frison to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award |
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Feb. 25, 2005 -- The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to the University of Wyoming's renowned anthropologist George C. Frison.
He will be honored at the organization's 70th annual business meeting Friday, April 1, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. The 7,000-member SAA is an international organization dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas.
Frison has a distinguished career in unlocking the secrets of prehistoric Wyoming, along with world-wide recognition in the area of paleoindian (early North American inhabitants) research. He has written 95 journal articles, 10 books with major publishers, including two editions (1978 and 1991) of "Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains," and presented more than 60 papers at national and international conferences. He has been active in the SAA throughout his career, serving as president elect for two years and president from 1983-85.
"While president of SAA, I handed this award to two other people who helped me when I was a graduate student," says Frison. "They were the top people in the profession. Now it looks like my day is going to happen and it's pretty nice when you're the recipient."
The group that nominated Frison wrote, "George has been an extraordinary productive researcher, teacher of anthropology, spokesperson for our discipline, and in the process has strengthened the state and national archaeological infrastructure."
The professor emeritus of anthropology, in 1997, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, making him the first UW professor to achieve this honor. In 1998, UW established the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, providing a focus for the study of cultural dynamics and prehistory in North America; and an emphasis for interdisciplinary approaches to studies of the early settlement and occupation of the Americas.
"I wouldn't want to do anything else," says Frison. "I've been interested in archeology since I was four years old growing up in the Big Horns. We've developed a good program at UW in prehistoric hunting and animal kill sites. That has been one of my specialities and there's nothing I've enjoyed more. I've always preferred reading, writing and excavating but you do owe time and knowledge to the profession."
Over the years, Frison has received more than $1 million in research grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, The Leakey Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Wyoming Council for the Humanities, and various state and federal agencies.
Frison was a lead contributor to two of the primary artifact classes of hunter-gatherer archaeology, chipped stone and bone. He, along with his students, also pioneered research in zooarchaeology by developing methods for interpreting season of bison mortality. His work took him to Russia and Africa several times. He also worked with the Smithsonian Institution for a year as a Board of Regents professor.
"I have to credit my students and people in other disciplines who have helped me out tremendously," says Frison. "We have great people at UW and an outstanding anthropology department. I am real proud of what we've done here and I think we will be seeing a lot more."
He says Wyoming is a largely untapped resource for students to do research. "You think you have the answers then you come up with something new,"Frison says. "It is real exciting."
Frison enrolled in UW in 1942 but World War II interrupted his education and he served in the United States Navy from 1943-46. He returned to UW in 1962 and earned his bachelor's degree. He was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for Graduate Study and attended the University of Michigan, receiving his master's and doctorate degrees.
Upon return to Wyoming in 1967, Frison was appointed head of the newly formed UW Department of Anthropology and further appointed the first Wyoming state archaeologist. Frison has been married to his wife June for 58 years.
His previous honors include the Asa Hill Award of the Nebraska Historical Society, the Distinguished Service Award of the Plains Anthropological Society, and the George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award for research at UW.
Currently, Frison is finishing his next book, "The Medicine Lodge Creek Site." Posted on Friday, February 25, 2005
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