Harold Barton Barclay (1924-2017)

One of the founding members of the department, Harold Barton Barclay (1924-2017), passed away in Vernon, B.C. on December 20th 2017. Prof. Barclay was born near Boston and received his PhD from Cornell after being a conscientious objector in World War II. Early in his career he lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East and Africa and spent two years at University of Cairo. He also did ethnographic research in Alberta which he described as a "goldmine of religious diversity." He published extensively in the field of political anthropology, including some well-regarded books on anarchy. He retired from the University of Alberta in 1989. In 2005 Prof. Barclay published a memoir entitled Longing for Arcadia: Memoirs of an Anarcho-Cynicalist Anthropologist. The memoir includes many stories about the early days of the Anthropology department, some of which resonate with our current discussions and debates about what a department of anthropology ought to be.