Memorials

Charles Herron Fairbanks, 1913-1984

Charles H. Fairbanks, one of the country's pioneers in historical archaeology, died in Gainesville, Florida, on 7 July, 1984. He had a significant influence on a generation of historical archaeologists through his initiation of the archaeology of disenfranchised groups, through his strong commitment to rigorous graduate training, and through his effective integration of science and humanism in archaeology.

Charles Fairbanks was born in Bainbridge, New York in 1913. As a young man he attended Swarthmore College and later the University of Chicago, where he received his first formal training in Anthropology and published his first archaeological paper (The occurrence of coiled pottery in New York State, American Antiquity, 1937).

While at Chicago, he was a student of Fay Cooper-Cole, who sent him to work on the Tennessee Valley Authority archaeological projects from 1937-1938. It was there that Charles Fairbanks began his long and distinguished career in southeastern archaeology. After graduating with the AB degree from Chicago in 1939, he left for Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia, where he worked as an archaeologist until 1943. During his five years at Macon, Charles Fairbanks played an important role in the development of the rigorous and painstaking field methodology that was an important contribution of the depression era Works Progress Administration archaeological programs. He subsequently brought this precision to the historical archaeology of the southeastern United States and to a generation of students in that region.

The years between 1943 and 1945 were spent in the United States Army, and in 1946 Charles Fairbanks resumed his archaeological career as Superintendent of Fort Frederica National Monument, Georgia. At Frederica his excavations at the Hawkins-Davidson houses were an important stage in the development of recovery and interpretive methods in historical archaeology. Although he left Frederica in 1948 to resume his graduate studies at the University of Michigan, his involvement in Frederica archaeology both directly and through his students, continued throughout his life.

At Michigan, Charles Fairbanks studied with James B. Griffin and became part of the Michigan-trained group of archaeologists who subsequently were to become very influential in the development of both historic and prehistoric archaeology in the southeastern United States. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1956, he began his teaching career at Florida State University. While at FSU he developed his interest in Spanish colonial archaeology, an area in which he was to become a leading figure. In 1963, Charles Fairbanks left Florida State to assume the position of chairman of the Anthropology Department at the University of Florida. During his eight years as chair, he oversaw the initiation of M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Anthropology, the growth of the faculty from three to 11 members, and the establishment of the department as one of the major graduate programs in the country for southeastern prehistory and historical archaeology. During this time he initiated and developed active programs or research in Spanish colonial archaeology and the ethnohistory of Florida's native groups, he pioneered the archaeology of slavery and of plantations, and introduced the concept of "backyard archaeology: in historic sites. In 1976 he was named Distinguished Service Professor of the State University system of Florida, and retired as Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in 1983.

His early involvement in historical archaeology is reflected in his participation in professional societies. He was a founding member of the Society for Historical Archaeology, was on the first Board of Directors, was the Society's fourth president, and the first recipient of the J.C. Harrington award for outstanding contribution to the field of historical archaeology.

As a teacher, Charles Fairbanks directed more than 20 M.A. students and 11 Ph.D. students. His style was a combination of personal concern, rigorous standards, staunch loyalty, and occasional towering rages. It mesmerized his students and inspired great affection as well as a healthy respect for both his scholarship and his opinions. The annual Charles H. Fairbanks Armadillo Roast, which celebrates his birthday, is in its fifteenth year, and is a major social event and academic homecoming for a considerable number of historical archaeologists.

Charles Fairbanks was a thorough and uncompromising scholar, as well as an uncompromising man of principle. He was inherently fair, giving equal consideration to colleagues and students, to hired workers and interested amateurs, and to men and women. Once committed, he could be relied upon completely as an ally and supporter, but he had little patience for bureaucratic red tape, or for what he considered to be restrictive or unnecessary formality. Both true and apocryphal tales of Chuck's uninhibited dealings with red tape and formalities are swapped regularly in more than one archaeological field camp. He was a man of direct physical action who was also ceaselessly observant of and curious about the natural and cultural worlds. To those of us fortunate enough to have been his students, he gave a truly holistic and anthropological view of the world and its workings.

Chuck is survived by his wife of 43 years, Evelyn Timmerman Fairbanks, a son Charles, daughter Marie, one grandchild, and a great many colleagues and students who miss his help and opinions, and who continue to be inspired by his example and his work.

Kathleen Deagan

Copyright 1985 by The Society for Historical Archaeology

Published in: Historical Archaeology, 1985, 19:122-124.

Reprinted here with the permission of The Society for Historical Archaeology.