Lasker, Gabriel Ward 1912–2002

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Lasker, Gabriel Ward 1912–2002

PERSONAL: Born April 29, 1912, in Huntington, England; died of kidney disease, August 27, 2002, in Detroit, MI; son of Bruno and Margaret (Ward) Lasker; married Bernice Kaplan, 1949; children: Robert Alexander, Edward Meyer, Ann Titania. Education: Attended University of Wisconsin, 1928–30; University of Michigan, A.B., 1934; Harvard University, M.A., 1940, Ph.D., 1945.

CAREER: Chiao T'ung University, Peiping, China, instructor in English, 1935–37; Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, various fellowships, 1938–41; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, teaching fellow in anatomy, 1941–42; Duke Hospital, Durham, NC, civilian public service, 1942–46; Wayne State University College of Medicine, Detroit, MI, beginning 1946, began as instructor, became professor of anatomy. Board of Directors, Wayne State University Press, 1954–61; member, Michigan State Board of Examiners in the Basic Sciences, 1956–57; associate director, Educational Resources in Anthropology Project, University of California, Berkeley, 1960–61.

MEMBER: American Association of Physical Anthropologists (secretary-treasurer, 1946–51; vice-president, 1960–62, president, 1963–65), American Association for Advancement of Science (fellow; secretary of anthropology section, 1952–57), American Anthropological Association (fellow), Current Anthropology (associate), American Association of Anatomists, Conference of Biological Editors (chair, 1963–65), American Society of Human Genetics, Sigma Xi.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fulbright Research Scholar in Peru and intercommission exchange lecturer in Chile, 1957–58; Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 1993; Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1996; honorary doctor of science, University of Turin, 2000.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Processes of Ongoing Human Evolution, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 1960.

The Evolution of Man: A Brief Introduction to Physical Anthropology, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (New York, NY), 1961, adapted by Frank N. Paparello as Human Evolution: Physical Anthropology and the Origin of Man, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (New York, NY), 1963.

(Editor, with David G. Mandelbaum and Ethel M. Albert) Resource for the Teaching of Anthropology, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1963, reprinted, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1982.

Physical Anthropology, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (New York, NY), 1973.

(Editor, with Elizabeth S. Watts, Francis E. Johnston) Biosocial Interrelations in Population Adaptation, Mouton (Chicago, IL), 1976.

(With others) Surnames and Genetic Structure: With Maps and Diagrams, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1985.

(Editor, with C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor) Biological Aspects of Human Migration, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor, with C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor) Atlas of British Surnames: With 154 Maps of Selected Surnames, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 1990.

(Editor, with C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor) Applications of Biological Anthropology to Human Affairs, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor, with C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor) Research Strategies in Human Biology: Field and Survey Studies, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Happenings and Hearsay: Experiences of a Biological Anthropologist, foreword by Michael A. Little, Savoyard (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Contributor of articles, reviews, and abstracts of lectures to biology and physical anthropology journals. Coeditor, with David Mandelbaum and Ethel Albert, The Teaching of Anthropology, University of California Press, 2 volumes. Coeditor, Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 1945–51, Human Biology, beginning 1953; contributor of chapter on surnames to The Human Biology of the English Village, by G. Ainsworth Harrison, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

SIDELIGHTS: A noted biological anthropologist, Gabriel Ward Lasker was also the author or editor of several books of biology and of a memoir. He was coeditor with C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor of Research Strategies in Human Biology: Field and Survey Studies, which presents a series of essays about research strategies that can be employed in the field of biological anthropology. Writing a review of the collection in Human Biology, Stephen L. Zeguar commented on the chapters Lasker contributed to the volume and noted: "Beginning graduate students in human biology would profit from reading the practical advice contained in Lasker's two chapters." Lasker's memoir, Happenings and Hearsay: Experiences of a Biological Anthropologist, not only discusses the author's career and life but also provides an "entertaining history of the field's development," as noted by Library Journal reviewer Glenn Petersen. Michael H. Crawford, writing in Human Biology, commented: "I strongly recommend this volume to the 'old Brahmins' for some nostalgia and to the young, aspiring biological anthropologists for a glimpse of the roots of their field."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Lasker, Gabriel Ward, Happenings and Hearsay: Experiences of a Biological Anthropologist, foreword by Michael A. Little, Savoyard (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, June, 1987, James H. Mielke, review of Surnames and Genetic Structure: With Maps and Diagrams, p. 509.

American Scientists, September-October, 1987, John H. Relethford, review of Surnames and Genetic Structure, p. 545.

Choice, November, 1999, review of Happenings and Hearsay, p. 565.

English Historical Review, January, 1988, R.A. McKinley, review of Surnames and Genetic Structure, p. 279.

Human Biology, December, 1994, Stephen L. Zegura, review of Research Strategies in Human Biology: Field and Survey Studies, p. 1123; February, 2001, Michael H. Crawford, review of Happenings and Hearsay, p. 153.

Library Journal, April 15, 1999, review of Happenings and Hearsay, p. 106.