We are very saddened to have learned of the passing of Professor Emeritus Bill Samarin, a linguistic anthropologist of towering reputation, on January 16 at the age of 93. Bill joined our faculty in 1967 - the same year he introduced the term 'field linguistics' in a newly published book. Prior to this, as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, Bill had already begun working on the Niger-Congo languages (especially Gbeya) and creole linguistics (particularly Sango), and continued doing so for the rest of his days - well past his official retirement in the early 1990s. He had a number of departmental undergraduates and graduate students working on his grant-funded projects all the way up to present-day Ph.D. students, and could be found on campus well into his eighties. In 2018, Bill attended our 50th Anniversary festivities as he was completing a comprehensive new work on Central African languages. Thanks to Jack Chambers (faculty) for sharing the details, as well as this anecdote:
"He became a kind of venerated figure in the African community where he worked partly because his use of the pidgin Sango was seen as classic, retaining features that were lost by young speakers. He was proud to tell me that elders would send their children to speak with him as he sat in the town common so they could get a taste of 'proper' Sango."
Rest in peace, Bill.
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