O Michael Watson

O Michael Watson

O Michael Watson, 76, professor emeritus of anthropology at Purdue University, passed away peacefully in his West Lafayette home on July 1, 2012.

Born in Knoxville, TN, in 1936, he arrived at Purdue in 1967 after serving in the US Marine Corps and completing both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Save a short stint at UCLA, he spent his entire career at Purdue. He also served as a panel reviewer for the National Institute of Mental Health between 1971 and 1975 and held a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania between 1973 and 1974, where he did research at the famed Center for Urban Ethnography alongside Erving Goffman.

Watson’s academic interests included proxemics and visual anthropology. His work received funding from both the NIMH and the NSF and his field sites included Tangier Island and a Navajo reservation in the Four Corners. He published numerous articles and a co-edited volume as well as a well-known book, Proxemic Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Study (Mouton, 1970). While attending a summer institute in visual anthropology in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he also co-wrote, directed, and produced a 1974 film, Spirit of Ethnography, which is still in circulation today.

Though a well-trained and accomplished researcher, Watson made a deliberate decision early in his career to focus on teaching, in order to build the anthropology program at Purdue. In fact, anthropology did not exist as a separate discipline at Purdue when he first arrived on campus, as he was hired by the department of sociology. He became well known for teaching large sections of Anthropology 100 to rave reviews, and also offered a number of unique courses on topics ranging from cannibalism to Celtic culture. Watson was recognized with a number of awards, including the Leonard Gesas Award for Best Teacher in 1973 and the School of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education Excellence in Teaching Award in 1979. His teaching talents did indeed help establish a stand-alone anthropology curriculum within the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (as it became known in 1972) and, ultimately, the separation of the two departments in 2008, which led to the thriving Department of Anthropology that we know today.

As further testament to Watson’s devotion to teaching, an undergraduate award bears his name. Students constantly sent him thank you notes and even baked goods in appreciation for his teaching. At a private memorial service held this past summer, a colleague remarked that it was actually impossible to go out for dinner or a drink with Watson without former students approaching him and thanking him for his classes, often with a comment such as “You were my favorite teacher at Purdue” or “I still remember your class.”

Michael Watson is survived by his former wife, Mary Jo Sparrow, and daughters Katie Watson and Julie Watson and their partners Scott McIntosh and Jody MacDonald. He is remembered fondly and sorely missed. (Rachel L Einwohner)

via Anthropology-News http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/02/11/o-michael-watson/