William Duncan Strong

William Duncan Strong (1899-1962), a native of Portland, Oregon, Dr. Strong attended the University of California at Berkley during the mid-1920's. At Berkley, he studied under Alfred Kroeber, the Chair of the Department of Anthropology at that time. While at Berkley he began to study ethnography but found that archaeology was his calling. He participated on field trips and did many other things there. His doctoral dissertation got the attention of the Dean of American Archaeologists, Dr. A.V. Kidder. Strong received his doctorate in 1926 at Berkley. In August of 1929, Strong became a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nebraska. While there he taught classes in Introduction to Anthropology, Primitive Society and Religion and a course on American Indians. On December 15, 1930, Strong resigned from his teaching position to take a position as Senior Entomologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology. While there he did some archaeological work but after four years decided he needed a change. In 1937, Strong took a position as Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York. Strong was often described as an effective and a stimulating instructor. Dr. Strong's professional career included service at the Field Museum of Natural History from 1926 to 1929, University of Nebraska from 1929 to 1931, Bureau of American Ethnology from 1931 to 1937, and Columbia University from 1937 to 1962. His work with the Field Museum of Natural History allowed him to participate in the Rawson-MacMillan field expedition and he traveled to Labrador on the schooner, Bowdoin. He recorded detailed information about the practices of the native groups he encountered on this expedition