Anderson, Robert, 1914-

Student of Leslie White at the University of Michigan, later professor of anthropology at the University of Utah.

Robert Anderson was born on 17 February 1914, in Bessemer, Michigan. Growing up in Marquette, Anderson worked part-time for the Marquette Mining Journal, reporting for the daily newspaper on Saturday and over summer vacations during high school. Following graduation from Northern Michigan College in 1937, Anderson taught high school for two years and was commencing graduate work in anthropology when the Second World War began.

Anderson was drafted in 1942, and the Army took advantage of his journalism and writing experience by assigning him to the Stauffer survey of American soldiers in Alaska, a project which yielded the multi-volume The American Soldier. Anderson also edited The News, the newsletter of the Percy Jones Hospital Center at Ft. Custer, Michigan.

After his discharge from the Army in 1945, Anderson went back to school, receiving his M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1947, a year that also saw his marriage to Alma Fassett. Anderson continued his graduate work at Columbia University, but returned to Michigan in 1948 to study under noted anthropologist Leslie White. In 1951, after extensive research that yielded a dissertation on the Cheyenne Indians, Anderson received his Ph.D. in anthropology.

Anderson began his career as a college professor in 1951 at Florida State University. Three years later he accepted the post of Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, where he would serve for the next thirty five years. In 1956, Anderson was made Associate Professor, and in 1963 he achieved the rank of Professor of Anthropology. In 1960, Anderson began lecturing in psychiatry, becoming an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry in 1970. In 1976, Anderson published a textbook, The Cultural Context: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, noted for a mature approach in an introductory work. Having built a reputation as an excellent lecturer and erudite scholar, he received the first College of Social and Behavioral Science Superior Teaching Award in 1980.

After a distinguished career, Robert Anderson retired from the University of Utah on 1 July 1989. He died on 17 August 1989.