Archaeologist Richard Stockton "Scotty" MacNeish April 29, 1918 to January 16, 2001

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Posted by Inbanana Jones from ip230.seattle11.wa.pub-ip.psi.net on January 21, 2001 at 03:29:09:

This is from the "shovelbums" mailing list.
I thought the Forum was sort of a "relevant mailing list"...
eg, hey Bud-Arc, Michaelson, and the rest of you archaeology buffs...
raise a glass to a fine fella.

Richard Stockton "Scotty" MacNeish April 29, 1918 to January 16, 2001

Please pass this announcement onto any relevant mailing lists you might be
on as Scotty's friends are interested in getting the word out to the rest of
his old buddies.

On Tuesday of this week Dr. Richard Stockton "Scotty" MacNeish died in a
hospital in Belize City from complications resulting from an auto accident.
Scotty had been on a working vacation driving between the sites of Lamanai
and Caracol. Driving fast, as was his typical pace, the car lost control on
some loose gravel and crashed. Fortunately British troops were nearby and
were able to get Scotty and his traveling companion, long time friend and
editor Jane Libby, removed from the wreckage and off to the hospital. Jane
tells me that the driver happened to be an archaeologist and that Scotty
talked shop with him all the way to the hospital. Sadly, four hours later,
Scotty passed away due to complications from the accident. Jane is
recovering in a hospital in Miami, Florida.

Everyone I have talked to so far has agreed, with the exception of actually
being able to die on an archaeology site, this is the way Scotty would have
wanted it: Away in the rainforest, between visiting two great sites, talking
shop, and reflecting on the cold Belikin beers he had the night before.
About the only thing different about this I could imagine is that he would
have preferred a bit more sporty of a car than a rental.

Scotty's body will be cremated in Belize and flown to his home in Andover
Massachusetts.

A bit about Scotty.

Scotty, as one friend put it best, was a hell of a character. I have even
had the pleasure to have worked with Scotty's original crew boss, Roger
Willis, who supervised Scotty during the WPA days at the Kincaid site in
Illinois when Scotty was a young buck at Chicago. Even then Roger tells me,
Scotty was quite the character having been a golden gloves champion in his
youth, and heavily into listening to the blues on the south side of Chicago.
But what most of us remember Scotty for is his pioneering work on the
origins of corn in Mexico in the 1950's. There is however plenty of
information about Scotty on the web for which I have added a few links
below. So I would just like to say a few words myself.

The bottom line about Scotty was he was a good man. He was known as many
things: a story teller, an agitator, a flirt, a lover of good bourbon and
Bohemia beer, a man who had the most important trait a archaeologists can
hope for, passion for his profession. It does not matter if you agree with
all of his interpretations of his research - disagreement is the nature of
our profession. What matters is that Scotty was a good person. And yes you
will hear your bosses and professors tell stories about Scotty - some wilder
and harder to believe than others, but unless they are first hand stories -
and so few of them are it seems, take them with a grain of salt. I am sure
though that Scotty regrets not having got to meet each of you personally -
as that was one of his true loves was, meeting younger archaeologists and
telling them stories about the old days. I was never at a conference where
Scotty and I crossed paths that he did not make the time to take the groups
I was with to the bar to regale them with first hand stories of field work
throughout the century. At the age of 82, and after nearly 6,000 days in
the field - Scotty has become part of what he had always loved, the
archaeological record.

So folks, the only thing I ask of you all is the next time you are in the
bar with your archaeology buddies or taking lunch in the field, have a
moment of silence among yourselves - reflect on the fact that this man who
was born in 1918 and who died in 2001... was still doing archaeology, then
make a toast to his memory. Scotty would have liked that.


There a few photos of Scotty at the new Shovelbum's section called "The
Ossuary". If you have any personal anecdotes that you would like to share
on this page feel free to pass them on to me.

http://ossuary.shovelbums.org/

I found several good articles about Scotty online at:

By Bill Brown -

http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0599toc/5profile1-macneish.shtml

and

http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/information/biography/klmno/macneish_richard.html

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