Allen McCartney Dies in Fayetteville's City Hospital, Memorial Service to be Held this Fall

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark - Dr. Allen P. McCartney, an Arkansas native and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, died Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at City Hospital in Fayetteville. A memorial service in Giffels Auditorium is being planned for the fall 2004 semester.

Dr. McCartney received his B.A. degree with high honors from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in 1962. He earned his M.A. (1967) and Ph.D. (1971) degrees from the University of Wisconsin, where he specialized in Northern archaeology. Dr. McCartney joined the Anthropology faculty at the University of Arkansas as an assistant professor in 1970 and was promoted to professor in 1979.

From 1978 to 1984, he served as chair of the Department of Anthropology, and from 1989 to 1995, he was director of the Environmental Dynamics Ph.D. program, which he was instrumental in establishing. McCartney focused his research on the importance of the bowhead whales in Thule Eskimo and Inupiak societies, exotic material trade in the Arctic, maritime adaptations, and Alaskan prehistory. He served on the Board of Governors of the Arctic Institute of North America and as editor of the journal Arctic Anthropology" from 1989 to 1995.

Prior to his retirement, the National Science Foundation sponsored a 2002 workshop in honor of his groundbreaking contributions that helped shape the direction of archaeological research in the Arctic.

Professor McCartney also was the recipient of numerous major research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Geographic Society, and was the author or editor of several monographs and more than 50 journal articles and chapters. In 2000, Fulbright College named him a Distinguished Alumnus, in recognition of his leadership, scholarship, and devoted service to his students and the University of Arkansas.

"Allen will be deeply missed and long remembered,' said Marvin Kay, chair of anthropology. "His love of others and his wisdom strengthened the department and touched the lives of his students and colleagues."