Dr. Daris Swindler traveled the world for his work — conducting archaeological digs in Egypt and Pakistan, traveling to Easter Island to study early settlement patterns of the first inhabitants.
But the former Edmonds resident was just as happy helping a neighbor to identify a shark tooth as he was working on headlining investigations.
Dr. Swindler, a renowned anthropologist and teacher, died Dec. 6 while undergoing cancer treatment in Spokane. He was 82.
Wiki page here.
I spent a field season in Egypt with Swindler in the Valley of the Kings and he was a great guy to work with. We were clearing and mapping uninscribed tombs (see Don Ryan's pages here) and Swindler worked on the human remains found therein. One day I saw him standing by the river gazing pensively at the sunset and obviously having a bit of pleasant quiet time. So of course I had to ruin it. I walked up behind him and pretended to be a local bugging him to go for a ride in a sailboat. He ignored me at first, but I persisted ("Good price! Good price!") and he eventually turned around and looked like he was going to slug me. Happily, he also had a good sense of humor.
Requiescat in pace, Daris.