In Memoriam: Robert Bayard Textor

Robert Bayard Textor, 89, was born in Cloquet, Minnesota on March 13, 1923 and died in Portland, Oregon on January 3, 2013.

He attended Lafayette and Antioch Colleges and received his AB in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan (1945). His PhD in cultural anthropology was obtained from Cornell University (1960).

Textor served in the US Army (1943–46) where he studied Japanese language and culture. He then worked as a civilian in the Allied Occupation of Japan where his duties included the preservation of art and monuments.

For his doctoral research he shifted his area from Japan to Thailand where he focused on religion, magic and divination in a Phranakaun Province village. During that period he also worked for Cornell’s Research Center in Bangkok and was a consultant to USAID. In 1956 he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and spent a year in a monastery, deeply enriching his knowledge of Thai culture and Asian religion. Throughout his early career Textor moved between academic positions, consultantships and managerial posts. In 1959–62 he held research positions at Yale and Harvard, and served as the first full-time anthropologist in the brand new Peace Corps’ Office of the Director. He trained volunteers, recruited Country Directors, and created their In-Up-Out policy.

In 1964 he joined the Stanford faculty as associate professor of anthropology and education. Promoted to professor in 1968, he moved full-time to anthropology in 1986 and retired early in 1990. He gave the anthropology and education graduate curriculum an international focus and trained many PhDs, including Alejando Toledo, who was elected Peru’s president in 2001. Textor also devoted attention to undergraduates, offering them opportunities for independent research.

Textor was one of the first anthropologists to focus on the cultural implications of computers and information technology and he was the major figure in what came to be known as ethnographic futures research. Among his publications were: Failure in Japan: With Keystones for a Positive Policy (1951); From Peasant to Pedicab Driver (1961); Cultural Frontiers of the Peace Corps (1966); Roster of the Gods: An Ethnography of the Supernatural in a Thai Village (1973); and The Ethnographic Futures Research Method: An Application Thailand (1995). He served as executive editor of the Journal of Educational Futures (1979–82).

Textor was founder and first president of the Council on Anthropology and Education. After his retirement he founded and moderated the “Thirsters,” an informal world-wide community of several hundred people who discuss a very broad range of cultural, developmental, environmental and ethical issues.

In 1998 Textor established an AAA prize, the Robert B Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology which is awarded annually. Donations in Textor’s honor may be made to the Cloquet Foundation’s Textor Family Fund for Intercultural Understanding and Harmony; Volunteers in Asia (Asia/US Exchange Program); or Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Survivors include a son, Alex Robertson Textor of London and a daughter Marisa Robertson-Textor of Brooklyn, New York.

He was a mentor, colleague and warm friend who will be much missed.