Bill Lipe by Robert Hubner, WSU Photo Services
|
Paper paves way of public archaeology In 1974 Lipe authored the paper “A Conservation Model for American Archaeology,” a reaction to rapidly dwindling archaeological resources as a result of development and vandalism. The paper proved seminal in the formation of modern public archaeology in the U.S., and its influence on cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology remains evident.
As land-managing agencies have moved from conservation toward a preservation mandate, making public lands less accessible to archaeologists and limiting research to sites threatened with destruction from development, Lipe has continued to engage the public, the CRM community and governments on matters of archaeological practice, ethics, legislation and the future. He argues that “well-justified, problem-oriented research on judiciously selected ‘non-threatened’ sites is ethically acceptable.”
Lipe has been involved in major archaeological projects in the northern Southwest, including the Glen Canyon Project during the late 1950s and early 1960s, where he served as an excavation crew chief for three summers under the supervision of University of Utah archaeology professor Jesse Jennings.
The project documented ancient Puebloan and pre-Puebloan sites that were to be flooded by Lake Powell in 1963, when the Glen Canyon Dam became operational and submerged the canyon in up to 500 feet of water.
Data collected by Lipe’s team and his survey reports provided the foundation for subsequent research and archaeologists’ general understanding of Glen Canyon in ancestral Puebloan times.
Lipe remains active with the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, a nonprofit organization located near Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado that initiates and conducts archaeological research and public education programs.
He helped develop Crow Canyon and has played a major role in shaping its programs. In May 2011, he will lead an education trip – “Ancient River, Ruins and Rock Art” – for the center to Utah’s San Juan River and Cedar Mesa.
|
PULLMAN – “Archaeology is a team sport,” says professor emeritus William “Bill” Lipe who, to continue his metaphor, last week received the equivalent of the coach, player and booster award rolled into one.
He planned to deliver a message about collaboration on Nov. 18, when he accepted the biennial Alfred Vincent Kidder Award for Eminence in the Field of American Archaeology from the American Anthropological Association.
Lipe was selected for his “extensive contributions to research in Southwestern archaeology, his transformative role in the development of public archaeology, his devotion to teaching and mentoring students of archaeology, and his commitment to service to archaeology.”
But the nationally recognized leader in archaeology of the Southwest was reluctant to hoard the credit.
“Virtually all the research and service work I’ve done has been as part of a group,” he said. “I’ve benefited enormously over the years by working not only with excellent colleagues but with top-flight graduate students, who have done much of the heavy lifting on research projects.”
But Lipe, of course, extended a hand up to many.
“I owe all my success as a Southwestern archaeologist to Bill’s willingness to take a risk on an archaeologist trained to work in the U.S. Southeast,” said WSU Regents Professor Tim Kohler. “He included me on WSU’s team as part of the enormously important Dolores Archaeological Project from 1978 to 1985. This project remains central to Southwestern archaeology 30 years later, and Bill was one of its central players.”
“He has been an immeasurable help and source of advice to me,” said Andrew Duff, who was hired as a junior faculty member in 2001 to fill the vacancy left by Lipe’s retirement. Now associate professor and chair of the WSU Department of Anthropology, he said Lipe’s “characteristically dry sense of humor and thoughtful concern have helped ease the transition into some very big shoes here at WSU: his.”
Lipe received his Ph.D. from Yale University and taught at the University of Oklahoma and SUNY Binghamton before arriving at WSU in 1976. He was assistant director of the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff in the early 1970s and served part-time as research director at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center while on the WSU faculty.
Lipe served as president for the Society for American Archaeology 1995-1997, and in 2002 he was awarded the SAA’s Distinguished Service Award.
At WSU, the William D. Lipe Visiting Scholar program was created in 2001 by Lipe’s students, colleagues, friends and family to honor his contributions to archaeology. The program brings a leading scholar to Pullman each year to deliver a public lecture and conduct seminars with graduate students and faculty.