In Memoriam

Frank C. Hibben

Archaeologist, anthropologist, author, adventurer and philanthropist Frank C. Hibben died June 11 at his Albuquerque home.

Born on December 5, 1910 in Lakewood, Ohio, Hibben first came to New Mexico in the mid-1930s on an expedition to collect small mammals and birds for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. A 1933 Princeton University archaeology graduate, Hibben received a master’s degree in zoology with field studies of the mountain lion from the UNM in 1936. He continued his education at Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. in archaeology in just one year, and then returned to New Mexico to begin his teaching career at UNM.

During World War II, Hibben served as an admiral’s aide in Washington, D.C. Following the war, Hibben devoted much of his time creating a museum at UNM. He directed the University Anthropology Museum from the mid-1930s until it was renamed the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in 1971. Granted full-professor in 1952, until recently, he kept office hours and lectured.

During the last few years of his life, Hibben developed the plans for the Hibben Center at UNM and supplied the funding for the three-story complex nearing completion on the western edge of the campus next to the Maxwell Museum. The Hibben Center will be devoted to archaeological study and graduate research and will house collections Hibben discovered during the excavations of Pottery Mound. The center will also host the Hibben Trust. Memorial gifts can be sent to the Hibben Trust for student scholarships, c/o UNM Foundation, Inc., 700 Lomas NE, Suite 200, Albq., NM 87131.