Richard Schaedel, an 85-yearold resident of St. Ignace, formerly of Austin, Texas, passed away early Friday, December 9, 2005, at Mackinac Straits Hospital Long Term Care Facility in St. Ignace.

Professor Schaedel was a noted archaeologist and anthropologist who concentrated his studies in South America. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale in 1952, where he studied under Wendell Bennett, a noted Latin American student of Andean history.

He was born on August 17, 1920, in Newark, New Jersey, to Joseph and Anna Louise (nee Haug) Schaedel and was a veteran of World War II.

He began teaching at the University of Texas in 1964, where he was a professor of anthropology, and retired in 1997 with the lifelong honor of Emeritus Professor.

While living and working in northern Peru in the late 1940s, Dr. Schaedel founded the Instituto de Antropología at the Universidad de Trujillo, which in 1971 named him Honorary Professor and in 1987 Doctor Honoris Causa. He also worked in Chile, Haiti, Mexico, Venezuela, and Berlin. His interests varied from community development to Andean stone sculpture to Moche ethnography, according to an obituary published by the University of Texas.

In addition to English, Mr. Schaedel spoke German, French, Spanish, Russian, and Mochik, a South American language.

Dr. Schaedel has lived in St. Ignace since July of 2005, owing to health problems.

Surviving are his wife, Eva, of Texas and Slovakia; three sons and their families, Leoncio and Maria Elena of Connecticut, Richard Edward of Berkeley, California, and Mark and Roberta of St. Ignace; two daughters and their families, Dahlia Hall of Stewart, Florida, and Delia AnnaMaria Schaedel of Hawaii and Austin; a sister, Paula Meuller of New Jersey; nine grandchildren, and one great grandson.

Cremation has taken place and a gathering will be held Thursday, December 29, at 5 p.m. at the home of Mark and Roberta Schaedel, 620 South State Street, St. Ignace.

His ashes will be interred in South America.