ºÚÁÏÍø

Dr. Dixon passed away at his home on July 24, 2018 at the age of 88 in the community of Rossmoor near Los Alamitos, Orange County, California. He had a long distinguished career as a professor of anthropology at California State University at Long Beach (ºÚÁÏÍø), where he joined the faculty in the Anthropology Department in 1958 as one of their first archaeologists, and became Professor Emeritus when he retired in 1992 from that institution. He received a B.A. (1950) and M.A. (1952) in Anthropology at the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of California at Los Angeles (1956). Both his M.A. Thesis and Ph.D. Dissertation research focused on the American Southwest.

Upon finishing his dissertation, Keith became involved in archaeological investigations in Mesoamerica, including Maya excavations in the late 1950s at Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico with the New World Archaeological Foundation, and at the famous site of Tikal in Guatemala with the University of Pennsylvania. In the mid-1960s, he conducted excavations with ºÚÁÏÍø at the Terminal Late Preclassic ceremonial site of Temesco in the Valley of Mexico. He published on various aspects of Mesoamerican research throughout his career, such as Maya ceramics, incredible Olmec-Izapa-style carvings on two human bones, and early obsidian hydration research.

At the same time, he became interested in the archaeology of Orange County and Southern California, including excavations with ºÚÁÏÍø field classes in the early 1960s at what is now known as the Fairview site (CA-ORA-58) in Costa Mesa. This resulted in a 1968 article about cogged stones found during the field class excavations, as well as other articles about the site. He advocated for preservation of ORA-58 and other portions of the area and was involved in setting it aside as open space in Costa Mesa as described in a 1971 article, and in 1972 the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Shortly thereafter, he nominated the ethnohistoric Gabrielino-Tongva village of Puvunga (CA-LAN-234/235, LAN-306) on the edge of ºÚÁÏÍø campus in Long Beach to the NRHP. Details about Keith Dixon’s role in the controversy that surrounds Puvunga and plans by ºÚÁÏÍø administrators for construction on the site of Puvunga can be found in a recent book (Loewe 2016; see also Dixon 2000 and Ruyle 2000).

Throughout his life, Keith was active in a number of professional archaeological and anthropological organizations, including the American Anthropological Association, Pacific Coast Archaeological Society, Society for American Archaeology, and Society for California Archaeology, as well as SWAA. And he served on the Orange County Historical Commission. 

He was a founding member of the California Cultural Resources Preservation Alliance (CCRPA), an alliance of Native Americans, archaeologists, historians, and concerned citizens who work together to preserve significant archaeological sites. We just celebrated our 20th anniversary and are sorry to lose a valued member of this organization. As a board member of CCRPA, this is how I first met Keith. I had known about his Southwestern research especially Hidden House, a small cliff dwelling in the Verde Valley of central Arizona (Dixon 1956), where I have conducted archaeological research at similar cliff dwellings near Sedona, and I also knew of his investigations at the Fairview site in Costa Mesa. About 8 years ago, I drove Keith to the Fairview Site in order for him to show me where he had excavated with his field classes. On this trip, I learned a little more about the life of this archaeologist and other archaeologists who he had met along the way. The photograph of Keith shown above was taken during our trip to the Fairview Site in September 2010.

In Memoriam article by Dr. Steven R. James (with thanks to Dr. Patricia Martz, Virginia Bickford, and Joe Siler) for the Fall 2018 (59: 3) SWAA Newsletter.