HILDRED GEERTZ, a cultural anthropologist who was Princeton’s first female department chair, died Sept. 30. She was 95. Geertz, who joined the faculty in 1971, was among the first women to earn tenure at the University. Her fieldwork and writing explored the cultures of Java, Morocco, and Bali, with a focus on art and artistry. Geertz chaired the anthropology department from 1973 to 1978 and served as acting chair from 1987 to 1988. According to a University obituary, she jokingly compared the job to raising male ducks: “You get only squawks and no eggs.”
IGNACIO RODRÍGUEZ-ITURBE, an ecohydrology pioneer in the civil and environmental engineering department, died Sept. 28. He was 80. Rodríguez-Iturbe studied connections between plant systems and the water cycle. In 2002, he won the Stockholm Water Prize, informally known as the “Nobel Prize of water,” according to a University news story. Rodríguez-Iturbe taught at six universities, including two in his native Venezuela (the University of Zulia and Simón Bolívar University). He joined Princeton’s faculty in 1999 and transferred to emeritus status in 2016.
T. LESLIE SHEAR JR. ’59 *66, an archaeologist of ancient Greece who directed excavations at the agora of Athens, died Sept. 28 at age 84. Shear was born in Athens, where his father, also a Princeton professor, was leading excavations of the agora. From 1968 to 1994, the younger Shear expanded on the work his father had started, yielding new discoveries, including the building from which Stoicism drew its name and the portico where Socrates was tried and sentenced to death. Shear served on the faculty for 42 years, retiring in 2009.
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