Obituary Patricia J. O’Brien

During his second semester at the University of Kansas in spring 1971, the senior author took World Prehistory, his first archaeology course, from Pat O’Brien, then Visiting Assistant Professor. Now just retired, he remembers how open and willing she was to chat with a freshman consumed with an interest in archaeology. Similarly, Pat influenced countless others, many who developed successful careers in anthropology. Over the years, the long-ago undergraduate and his co-author, who succeeded Pat at Kansas State University (K-State), treasured innumerable interactions with Pat, who always had interesting stories and infectious enthusiasm.

Patricia J. O’Brien, K-State professor of archaeology from 1967 to 1998, died March 24, 2019, a week shy of her eighty-fourth birthday. She passed away in her Manhattan home, the historic Lydia-Jean Apartments, which she restored in her retirement. Educator, mentor, colleague, and friend, she possessed a unique character that endeared her to all. Her devotion to the Plains Anthropological Society in particular earned her its Distinguished Service Award in 2009, the first female to achieve it solo (PAS 2010). In addition to regular participation in the Plains Conference and frequent publication in Plains Anthropologist, she was editor from 1989 to 1992. From that experience, she advocated for increasing professionalization of the journal through compensation of its assistant editor. Her contributions to teaching and research were recognized in 1991 by K-State with a Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award, while the K-State Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, honored her as a Distinguished Research Lecturer.

A native of north-side Chicago (but a White Sox fan), Pat worked for Illinois Bell Telephone as Plant Engineering Clerk between 1953 and 1960 while completing an Associate degree in art at Wright Junior College. According to her brother, at Illinois Bell “[S]he discovered that she was at least as competent as her male counterparts doing the same drafting work, [a] revelation that inspired her to extend her interest in the world around her.”

Pat decided to study anthropology enrolling in 1960 at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where she received the BA in 1962 and PhD in 1969. Through her classes and work with Julian Steward, Donald Lathrap, and Charles Bareis, Pat gained understanding of cultural ecology, Mississippian cultures, and cultural developments in South America. Working with Lathrap and Bareis, she completed a dissertation on “A Formal Analysis of Cahokia Ceramics from the Powell Tract” (1972a), the first widely distributed monograph on Cahokia since that of Warren Moorehead in 1929.

Margaret Mead, according to her brother, was a professional role model for Pat but more directly, Dr. Elaine Bluhm helped trained Pat in field methods (Brown 2017; Hargrave 2017). After serving as a Research Assistant to Bareis in 1962–63, Pat volunteered at Bluhm’s excavation of the John Deere Blacksmith Shop at Grand Detour, Illinois in spring 1963 before serving as crew director for excavation of two Archaic sites near Rock Island. Years later, she coedited and contributed to a monograph on Bluhm’s earlier work at the Huber and Hoxie Farm sites in the Chicago area (Brown and O’Brien 1990).

Believing much could be learned about past societies through analysis of pottery, Pat used her grounding in Cahokia’s ceramics to postulate Mississippian influence (some believe too much) on eastern Plains populations, especially those assigned to the Steed-Kisker phase of the Kansas City locality (O'Brien 1978). Pottery also linked her to her husband, Angelo Garzio, internationally renowned ceramicist and professor in K-State’s Department of Art. While the marriage was brief (1980–1987), their deep friendship lasted until his death in 2008. Garzio’s respect for her is evident in the Patricia J. O’Brien Scholarship Award in Archaeology that he established at K-State in 1986. Since 2009 students at her alma mater have benefitted from the Patricia O’Brien Award in Anthropology (Sarah Morris, personal communication, April 30, 2019).

Pat came to KSU in 1967 after a year as Interim Instructor at Florida Atlantic University. She followed K-State's first archaeologist Michael Stanislawski and completed his excavation at Lonergan Trailer (14RY401), a Central Plains tradition (CPt) site on Wildcat Creek near the K-State campus. Its CPt lodge yielded a richer, more varied assemblage than that recovered by Waldo R. Wedel in 1937 at nearby Griffing (14RY21), type site of the Smoky Hill phase (Logan 2016).

During her first year in Kansas Pat met Alfred Johnson, then Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas (KU). Personally and professionally compatible, they co-directed a series of summer archaeological field schools (1968–1976) that combined Al’s interest in Kansas City Hopewell (Middle Woodland) and Pat’s in Steed-Kisker (Late Prehistoric). Their work was funded by the National Science Foundation, US Army Corps of Engineers, the Missouri Department of Transportation, and their respective universities. Various reports, theses, dissertations, and publications by them and their students undergird our understanding of more than 1500 years of cultural adaptation in that locality.

As an instructor and field director, Pat conveyed essential information and skills, while setting a tone of joie d’vivre. Kansas archaeologist Virginia Wulfkuhle, a student in the first KU-K-State archaeological field school remembers that Pat “pushed her crew but always with good humor and joked that she would ‘get the whip’“ if they failed to dedicate themselves to their work. The students pooled their funds and purchased a whip for her well before Indiana Jones popularized this imagery. Susan Vehik, another member of that field school, recalls excavation of Middle Woodland Taylor Mound with complex stratigraphy, which Pat referred to as her enigma (1971). To her Pat was

a patient and humorous instructor [who] provided good explanations for what we were doing and why. The training provided by Al and Pat … .produced a number of archaeologists including Rain Vehik (whom I married a year later), Doug Scott, Paul and Susanna Katz, Virginia Wulfkuhle, Linda Klepinger, and myself. Most of us continued to interact with Pat and will miss her humor and advice.

That first crop of budding archaeologists exemplifies those from subsequent terms of the annual program that in 1971 became the Kansas Archaeological Field School, subsequently directed 16 times by the senior author through KU and K-State (1986–2016).

In addition to research along the lower Missouri River, Pat investigated sites in the northern Flint Hills. Her work at Witt, a CPt lodge, resulted in interpretations of cosmology, ideology, and gender roles based on ethnographic analogy from historic Pawnee culture that garnered praise and criticism (1986a, 1987a, 1990, 1991a; O’Brien and Post 1988; cf. Roper 1994). Pat’s suggestion that some Late Prehistoric lodges incorporated astronomical alignments also received mixed reception (O’Brien and McHugh 1987). Some thought her interpretations imaginative (Johnson), others were “struck by her asking questions no one else did” (Montet-White). To Wulfkuhle, “she was not afraid to propose ideas that were outside the box, unencumbered by the arrogance or territoriality that afflicts some.”

Indicative of her inquisitive mind and adventurous nature, Pat ventured beyond the eastern Plains through research and travel. Expanding on graduate research, she published a synthesis, still relevant, of the global dispersal of the sweet potato (1972b). She presented ideas about the measurement system of the ancient Maya (1986b), statehood at Cahokia (1989, 1991b), and paleoindian activities in the Kansas High Plains (1984b, 1987b). Twice, she taught courses about Plains Indians abroad, first, during the summer of 1987 at the Institut fur Vökerkunde und Afrikanistik at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich and on a Fulbright in 1994–95 at the Institut für Englische Philologie at the Universität Wurzburg.

Beyond her studies of prehistory and adventures in other parts of the world, Pat also developed interest in local history. She led excavations and study of a nineteenth century hospital privy at Fort Riley, rural agricultural structures (O’Brien et al. 1987), Bluemont College, progenitor of K-State (2016), and the Manhattan home of Free State founder Isaac Goodnow. Her interest in local history and architecture resulted during her active retirement in Digging K-State: The History of Bluemont Central College (2016) and Architects and Buildings of Manhattan, Kansas (2008).

As recognized by the Plains Anthropological Society, K-State, Sigma Xi, and her many students and colleagues, Pat accomplished much over a life well lived. Many would agree with Wulfkuhle that one of Pat’s most memorable characteristics was “her enthusiasm for archaeology, coupled with her ability to convey that excitement to others.” Pat’s energy, excitement, and abilities left a legacy for which she will long be fondly remembered. We will not see her like again.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Mike Finnegan, Al Johnson, Anta Montet-White, Denny O’Brien, Harriet Ottenheimer, Susan Vehik, and Virginia Wulfkuhle, who took time to share their memories and thoughts about Pat.

ORCID

Lauren W. Ritterbush http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1171-4714