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In Memoriam: John Marshall Townsend

February 11, 2025

Renowned Anthropologist, Devoted Teacher

John Marshall Townsend grew up near Sequoia National Park, which nurtured for him a love of nature and the giant redwoods. The youngest child of two educators, he would come to think of teaching as “a spiritual thing.”

That mindset was reflected in his more than 50 years at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He joined the faculty in 1973, and through the decades served as a professor, mentor, writer and researcher in the Anthropology Department. He faced long-term health conditions but, so devoted to his craft and his students, he continued to teach through the spring of 2024.

Townsend passed away on Jan. 22, 2025. He was 83.

Townsend earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972. Before joining Syracuse University, he spent one year in the Anthropology Department at the University of Montana, Missoula.

During his five decades at Maxwell, Townsend taught upper division seminars as well as large introductory anthropology classes. His teaching evaluations were among the highest in the department. Since 1990, he was also an adjunct lecturer at SUNY Upstate Medical University and a member of the Consortium for Culture and Medicine, and his classes often had steady enrollment by medical and nursing students.

“As a colleague, John was a good Maxwell citizen,” said longtime colleague Christopher DeCorse, Distinguished Professor and chair of anthropology. “His classes were popular and well enrolled. While he suffered from long-term, degenerative medical problems he was committed to his teaching responsibilities and scheduled medical treatments during breaks and vacations so as not to disrupt his courses.”

Throughout his life, Townsend traveled widely and witnessed history. He lived in West Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall while conducting field research. He was in Prague in 1968 when Warsaw Pact tanks entered the city, and he said how Prague's people continued to hold a special place in his heart.

Townsend published more than 30 articles in top journals on topics including human sexuality, partner selection and mental illness. His books “Cultural Conceptions and Mental Illness” (University of Chicago Press, 1978) and “What Women Want—What Men Want: Why the Sexes Still See Love and Commitment So Differently” (Oxford University Press, 1999) received academic and popular acclaim. The latter involved 17 years of research and was supported by a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities. He also served as an editor at academic journals, gave many guest lectures and appeared on national television and radio talk shows.


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