I received this news last week but have been delayed in relaying it. Professor Geoffrey Pope of William Paterson University passed away on Feb 17, 2019. RIP

Geoff was born February 1, 1951 in Tucson, Arizona to Edmund and Jan Pope as their eldest child. Geoff grew up in Manhattan Beach, California and was an avid adventurer and accomplished paleoanthropologist, earning a PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley. He has lived in Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and several parts of the United States and was fluent in at least four languages, including Thai, Chinese and Indonesian. He was a passionate teacher and a well-respected expert in early hominids in South East Asia and evolutionary biology. His career in paleoanthropology spanned over four decades, with over 60 publications and numerous contributions to the field.

During his time in Thailand, he not only fell in love with the country and culture, but also his first wife Susan Walton from Australia, with whom he fathered his two children, Tom and Sarah. Later, he met his second wife, Jannuan (aka Noi) while doing field work in Northern Thailand. Geoff and Noi enjoyed traveling the United States National Parks and Thailand. He had a particular fondness for the red rock country of southern Utah and Arizona. It was there on numerous family vacations that Geoff acquired a love for Navajo Indian culture and artifacts, which later spurred his interest and love of hominid evolution. Beyond his obvious intellectual capability, Geoff was a gentle, kind and loyal person that cared deeply about his family and friends in his own way. He loved to travel and sit in the mountains or by the rivers, where he was probably thinking of his next poem or research project while drinking his gin and bitter lemon.

Source: Obituary of Geoffrey Pope | Welcome to DeLuccia-Lozito Funeral Home…