AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 89:123-125 (1992)
Obituary: Edward Eyre Hunt, Jr. (1922-1 991) PAUL T. BAKF,R 47-450 Lulani St., Kaneohe, Huwuii
With the death of Ed Hunt, physical anthropology has lost perhaps the last of the field’s renaissance scholars and certainly one of its most beloved graduate educators. His death was, for him, an easy one, the consequence of an unexpected embolism after routine gall bladder surgery. For his family and those who knew him well, his death was an unexpected shock, since he was fit and had changed little over the years. Few people knew that Ed was one of the first of his generation t o be fully cured from Hodgkin’s disease as a young adult. As a graduate student I was amazed when Ed told me that he had wanted since childhood to be a physical anthropologist. Most of our generation had never heard of the subject until we were in college. After receiving a B.A. from Harvard College in 1942, Ed was temporarily thwarted in his objective by a four-year stay in the U.S. Air Force during World War 11. After the war, he returned to Harvard University for graduate work and
0 1992 WILEY-LISS, INC
was in 1951 one of the last students to complete a Ph.D. under E.A. Hooton’s direction. For the next fifteen years (with an intermediate year as a Visiting Lecturer a t the University of Melbourne), Ed remained at Harvard University, alternating between the Forsyth Dental Center and the Department of Anthropology. While there, he found time for marriage to Vilma Dalton-Webb, who was a fellow professional. Their marriage was a model of today’s dual-career families. I remember well Ed lecturing in his growth class while his first daughter slept quietly in a banana crate on his desk. Three more children followed thereafter. Three activities characterized Ed‘s research in these Harvard years. First, he mined the large data bank he and others had collected from a Navy sponsored research program on Yap. Second, he pursued the topic of human growth, the interest of which was enhanced for him by his increasing interest in the direct measurement of
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body composition and his gradual abandonment of somatotyping. Third, his position a t Forsyth led him to start conducting research in dental and facial development. After leaving Harvard, Ed spent a brief three-year stay as Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College-CUNY. He and Vilma then took positions in 1969 at The Pennsylvania State University where they remained until retirement in 1985. Ed held the position of Professor of Anthropology and Health Education during these years. W%i!e his primary interests remained in growth studies, he broadened his scope to include problems of sports medicine, primate behavior, medical anthropology, and even the history of physical anthropology. Ed had an excellent command of mathematics and statistics, which was reflected in all of his publications. Indeed, the thing that most distinguished his research papers was his ability to tease out new insights from data by the use of innovative mathematical and statistical approaches. His analytic approaches and strong belief that growth studies should concentrate on the causes for individual and population variability contributed substantially to changing the study of growth from a largely descriptive science to one focused on causation. Indeed he believed that the entire discipline of physical anthropology should focus on causes rather than descriptions. For example, in his 1982 article on the old anthropology he stressed that the major shift in physical anthropology which began in the 1950s was from a descriptive anatomical approach to a dynamic one which emphasized the causes for variability. Another of Ed's distinctive characteristics as a scientist was his willingness t o explore any new idea, no matter how deviant from traditional scientific views. At one point he examined carefully the possible existence of Bigfoot, but finally decided that the evidence for such an animal was insufficient. He remained throughout his life open to new ideas and approaches, but also rigorous in his demands for scientific proof. A devoted teacher, Ed would tackle any course in anthropology or health-related topics with enthusiasm and competence. Indeed his growth course a t Harvard was the
first physical anthropology course which convinced me that physical anthropology could be scientific in method. As a teacher, he will be best remembered as a graduate tutor who had infinite patience with young scholars, including the promising but arrogant ones. He had the ability to make students feel they had worthwhile ideas while he fed them more new ones and coaxed them into using rigorous methods of analysis. Despite his strong support of graduate students, he always demanded by example and practice adherence to high scientific standards. His door was never closed and his desire to help was always manifest. Ed was a leading figure in the process which changed physical anthropology from a descriptive science into one with a Darwinian and problem-solving orientation. For him, physical anthropology was more than a profession; it was a way of life. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS OF EDWARD E. HUNT Hunt EE (1951) A view of somatology and serology in Micronesia. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 9t157-184. Hunt EE (1952) Human constitution: An appraisal. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. IOt55-73. Hunt EE, Kidder NR, and Schneider DM 119541 The depopulation of Yap. Hum. Biol. 26t21-51. Hunt EE, and Giles E. (1956) The allometric growth of body composition in man and other mammals. Hum. Biol. 28r253-273. Hunt EE (1958a) Human growth and body form in recent generations. Am. Anthropol. 6Ot118-131. Hunt EE (1958b) Anthropometry, genetics and racial history. Am. Anthropol. 61t64-87. Baker PI',Hunt EE, and Sen T (1958)T'ne growth and interrelations of skinfolds and brachial tissues in man. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 26t39-58. Hunt EE, and Barton WH (1959) The inconstancy of physique in adolescent boys and other limitations of somatotyping. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 17r27-35. Hunt EE (1961) Malocclusion and civilization. Am. J. Orthod. 47t406-422. Coon CS, and Hunt EE (eds.) (1963) Fischer Lexicon: Anthropology A to 2. New York Grosset & Dunlap. Hunt EE, and Mavalwala (1964) Finger ridge counts in the Micronesians of Yap. Micronesica Ir55-58. Hunt EE, Lessa WA, and HickingA (1965)The sex ratio of live births in three Pacific island populations (Yap, Samoa and New Guinea). Hum. Biol. 37r148-155. Coon CS, with Hunt EE (1965)The Living Races of Man. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Hunt EE (1966) The developmental genetics of man. In F Falkner (ed.j: Human Development. New York: WB Saunders & Co., pp. 76-122. Hans JD, Hunt EE, and Rvskirk ER (1971) Skeletal
OBITUARY: EDWARD EYRE HUNT, JR.
development of non-institutionalized children with low intelligence quotients. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 35t455-466. Hunt EE (1972) Obesity: Epidemiologic considerations. In F Reichsman (ed.): Hunger and Satiety in Health and Disease. Advances in Psychosom. Med. 7t148172. Teleki G, Hunt EE, and Pfifferling J H (1976) Demographic observations (1963-1973) on the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park, Tanzania. J. Hum. Evol. 5:559-598. Logan MH, and Hunt EE (eds.) (1978) Health and the Human Condition: Perspectives in Medical Anthropology. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press.
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Hunt EE, and Hatch JW (1981) The estimation of age a t death and ages of formation of transverse lines from measurements of human long bones. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 54:461-469. Hunt EE (1982) The old physical anthropology. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 56:339-346. Hunt EE, and Newcomer NW (1984) The timing and variability of menarche, cumulative fertility and menopause: A symmetrical and parsimonious bioassay model. Hum. Biol. 56t47-62.
Note: At his death, Ed left two manuscripts in progress and two submitted for review.
Obituary: Edward Eyre Hunt, Jr. (1922-1 991) PAUL T. BAKF,R 47-450 Lulani St., Kaneohe, Huwuii
With the death of Ed Hunt, physical anthropology has lost perhaps the last of the field’s renaissance scholars and certainly one of its most beloved graduate educators. His death was, for him, an easy one, the consequence of an unexpected embolism after routine gall bladder surgery. For his family and those who knew him well, his death was an unexpected shock, since he was fit and had changed little over the years. Few people knew that Ed was one of the first of his generation t o be fully cured from Hodgkin’s disease as a young adult. As a graduate student I was amazed when Ed told me that he had wanted since childhood to be a physical anthropologist. Most of our generation had never heard of the subject until we were in college. After receiving a B.A. from Harvard College in 1942, Ed was temporarily thwarted in his objective by a four-year stay in the U.S. Air Force during World War 11. After the war, he returned to Harvard University for graduate work and
0 1992 WILEY-LISS, INC
was in 1951 one of the last students to complete a Ph.D. under E.A. Hooton’s direction. For the next fifteen years (with an intermediate year as a Visiting Lecturer a t the University of Melbourne), Ed remained at Harvard University, alternating between the Forsyth Dental Center and the Department of Anthropology. While there, he found time for marriage to Vilma Dalton-Webb, who was a fellow professional. Their marriage was a model of today’s dual-career families. I remember well Ed lecturing in his growth class while his first daughter slept quietly in a banana crate on his desk. Three more children followed thereafter. Three activities characterized Ed‘s research in these Harvard years. First, he mined the large data bank he and others had collected from a Navy sponsored research program on Yap. Second, he pursued the topic of human growth, the interest of which was enhanced for him by his increasing interest in the direct measurement of
124
PT. B
body composition and his gradual abandonment of somatotyping. Third, his position a t Forsyth led him to start conducting research in dental and facial development. After leaving Harvard, Ed spent a brief three-year stay as Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College-CUNY. He and Vilma then took positions in 1969 at The Pennsylvania State University where they remained until retirement in 1985. Ed held the position of Professor of Anthropology and Health Education during these years. W%i!e his primary interests remained in growth studies, he broadened his scope to include problems of sports medicine, primate behavior, medical anthropology, and even the history of physical anthropology. Ed had an excellent command of mathematics and statistics, which was reflected in all of his publications. Indeed, the thing that most distinguished his research papers was his ability to tease out new insights from data by the use of innovative mathematical and statistical approaches. His analytic approaches and strong belief that growth studies should concentrate on the causes for individual and population variability contributed substantially to changing the study of growth from a largely descriptive science to one focused on causation. Indeed he believed that the entire discipline of physical anthropology should focus on causes rather than descriptions. For example, in his 1982 article on the old anthropology he stressed that the major shift in physical anthropology which began in the 1950s was from a descriptive anatomical approach to a dynamic one which emphasized the causes for variability. Another of Ed's distinctive characteristics as a scientist was his willingness t o explore any new idea, no matter how deviant from traditional scientific views. At one point he examined carefully the possible existence of Bigfoot, but finally decided that the evidence for such an animal was insufficient. He remained throughout his life open to new ideas and approaches, but also rigorous in his demands for scientific proof. A devoted teacher, Ed would tackle any course in anthropology or health-related topics with enthusiasm and competence. Indeed his growth course a t Harvard was the
first physical anthropology course which convinced me that physical anthropology could be scientific in method. As a teacher, he will be best remembered as a graduate tutor who had infinite patience with young scholars, including the promising but arrogant ones. He had the ability to make students feel they had worthwhile ideas while he fed them more new ones and coaxed them into using rigorous methods of analysis. Despite his strong support of graduate students, he always demanded by example and practice adherence to high scientific standards. His door was never closed and his desire to help was always manifest. Ed was a leading figure in the process which changed physical anthropology from a descriptive science into one with a Darwinian and problem-solving orientation. For him, physical anthropology was more than a profession; it was a way of life. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS OF EDWARD E. HUNT Hunt EE (1951) A view of somatology and serology in Micronesia. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 9t157-184. Hunt EE (1952) Human constitution: An appraisal. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. IOt55-73. Hunt EE, Kidder NR, and Schneider DM 119541 The depopulation of Yap. Hum. Biol. 26t21-51. Hunt EE, and Giles E. (1956) The allometric growth of body composition in man and other mammals. Hum. Biol. 28r253-273. Hunt EE (1958a) Human growth and body form in recent generations. Am. Anthropol. 6Ot118-131. Hunt EE (1958b) Anthropometry, genetics and racial history. Am. Anthropol. 61t64-87. Baker PI',Hunt EE, and Sen T (1958)T'ne growth and interrelations of skinfolds and brachial tissues in man. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 26t39-58. Hunt EE, and Barton WH (1959) The inconstancy of physique in adolescent boys and other limitations of somatotyping. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 17r27-35. Hunt EE (1961) Malocclusion and civilization. Am. J. Orthod. 47t406-422. Coon CS, and Hunt EE (eds.) (1963) Fischer Lexicon: Anthropology A to 2. New York Grosset & Dunlap. Hunt EE, and Mavalwala (1964) Finger ridge counts in the Micronesians of Yap. Micronesica Ir55-58. Hunt EE, Lessa WA, and HickingA (1965)The sex ratio of live births in three Pacific island populations (Yap, Samoa and New Guinea). Hum. Biol. 37r148-155. Coon CS, with Hunt EE (1965)The Living Races of Man. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Hunt EE (1966) The developmental genetics of man. In F Falkner (ed.j: Human Development. New York: WB Saunders & Co., pp. 76-122. Hans JD, Hunt EE, and Rvskirk ER (1971) Skeletal
OBITUARY: EDWARD EYRE HUNT, JR.
development of non-institutionalized children with low intelligence quotients. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 35t455-466. Hunt EE (1972) Obesity: Epidemiologic considerations. In F Reichsman (ed.): Hunger and Satiety in Health and Disease. Advances in Psychosom. Med. 7t148172. Teleki G, Hunt EE, and Pfifferling J H (1976) Demographic observations (1963-1973) on the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park, Tanzania. J. Hum. Evol. 5:559-598. Logan MH, and Hunt EE (eds.) (1978) Health and the Human Condition: Perspectives in Medical Anthropology. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press.
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Hunt EE, and Hatch JW (1981) The estimation of age a t death and ages of formation of transverse lines from measurements of human long bones. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 54:461-469. Hunt EE (1982) The old physical anthropology. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 56:339-346. Hunt EE, and Newcomer NW (1984) The timing and variability of menarche, cumulative fertility and menopause: A symmetrical and parsimonious bioassay model. Hum. Biol. 56t47-62.
Note: At his death, Ed left two manuscripts in progress and two submitted for review.
