McKennan, Robert A. (Robert Addison), 1903-1982

McKennan was born in Helena, Mont. in 1903 and was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925. He received his Ph.D from Harvard University in 1933, after completing field research in northwestern Ariz. among the Walapai Indians and in Alaska among the Indians of the Upper Tanana River. In 1930 he became an instructor of sociology at Dartmouth College; he became an assistant professor in 1934, after spending the summer of 1933 doing field research among the Chandalar Kutchin in Alaska, and a full professor in 1938. He continued his career at Dartmouth College after serving with the U.S. Army Air Force from 1942 to 1945 and retired from the College in 1969.

Robert A. McKennan was a cultural anthropologist, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Dartmouth College, and a reservist in the Air Force. McKennan is best known for his work with the Athabascan people of Alaska. He was born on December 20, 1903 in Helena, Montana. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925. McKennan was awarded a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship by Harvard University in 1929, which permitted him to begin ethnographic study of the Tanana Indians of Alaska. His research spanned 1929-1930, and he served as Instructor of Sociology at Dartmouth College from 1930 to 1934. McKennan was awarded a Ph. D. in anthropology from Harvard University in 1933. He served as a lieutenant colonol in the U.S. Army from 1942-1945, commanding the Tanacross Air Force Detachment in Alaska. He was a professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College until 1969, holding various director and chairmanships during that time. McKennan conducted field work in anthropology in the Canadian arctic and interior Alaska throughout his tenure at Dartmouth. He was named Professor Emeritus, Research Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth in 1969, and continued to conduct fieldwork in Alaska, including sites along the proposed route of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline through 1972. McKennan died in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1982.