F. Clark Howell: In Memoriam
World-famous paleoanthropologist F. Clark Howell passed away on Saturday, March 10th, 2007, at the age of 81. Clark was our professor, research colleague, mentor, friend, and an important and immensely valued Advisory Board member of the Stone Age Institute. All of us at the Institute feel an enormous sense of personal and professional loss.
Clark was a truly remarkable person. His knowledge of human evolution was encyclopedic; he was proficient at human palaeontology, vertebrate palaeontology (including the evolution of the carnivores), and palaeolithic archaeology. His direction of the Omo Valley research project in Ethiopia set the standard for multidisciplinary palaeoanthropological research projects, combining specialists in palaeontology, geology, geochronology, and archaeology. He also carried out important field work at the Acheulean sites of Isimila in Tanzania and Torralba and Ambrona in Spain, as well as the Lower Palaeolithic site of Yarimburgaz in Turkey.
He was also probably the most important diplomat in the field, always encouraging collaboration between individuals and countries. His service for the University of California, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences was very important, and the field of human evolutionary studies would not be where it is today without Clark’s indefatigable energy.
He was born in Kansas City in 1925, served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, and attended the University of Chicago, receiving his doctorate in 1953. He taught at Washington University in Saint Louis, the University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley where he became an emeritus professor in 1997.
On the personal side, we remember Clark affectionately as a great raconteur, a music lover (especially liking Big Band jazz and swing, Opera, and also contemporary artists like Bob Dylan), and a history buff (he said he would have studied the American Civil War if he hadn’t studied human evolution). He had a great love of the cultures of other countries: the art, architecture, literature, music, and cuisine. He also had a great sense of humor, and we will always remember his gentle chuckle and the special twinkle in his eye when relaying or appreciating a joke or humorous story.
Our deepest sympathies go out to Clark’s wife Betty, his son Brian, and his daughter Jennifer. Clark truly was a very special person, and we will all miss him enormously. He was a gentleman and a scholar, a wonderful human being, and an exemplary role model for current and future generations of paleoanthropologists.
Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, Co-Directors, Stone Age Institute
