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Charles Frantz ( Missoula 1945 )

posted: Aug 27, 2020

Chuck died July 19, 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after a long and distinguished career as an anthropologist. He was born April 22, 1925, in Rocky Ford, Colorado and was raised with six brothers and a sister on their parents poultry farm. He registered for the WWII draft the day after his 18th birthday and later was drafted while attending Northern Colorado College.

He entered the Civilian Public Service (CPS) as a conscientious objector, initially working at the Savanac Tree Nursery at Haugan on the Lolo NF, and in the potato fields of Aberdeen, Idaho.

Chuck made 3 fire jumps during the 1945 season and then continued his education at Earlham College where he graduated with a B.A. in 1950. He obtained a M.A. from Haverford College in 1951 and his Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1958.

Chuck had strong feelings about the military draft and refused to register for the peacetime draft in 1948. In July 1949 he was sentenced to 90 days imprisonment. Chuck went on to marry in June 1950 and become a noted researcher/professor of anthropology and taught at SUNY-Buffalo, Portland State University, the University of Toronto, Howard University, and State University of New York-Buffalo and Amherst University.

Chuck was described by colleagues as a man of extremely strong ethics and a diligent and hard worker who protected his students and passed on these attributes to those around him.