Taylor, Walter, Jr., Capt

Following his WWII service in the OSS, Capt. Taylor moved to Santa Fe, NM, then to Mexico and then joined the faculty of Southern Illinois University where he developed the Department of Anthropolog in1958.  He also taught occasionally in Texas, Washington, Mexico City College and the La Escuela Nacional de Antropologia  e Historia in Mexico.  In addition, Dr. Taylor conducted archaelogical fieldwork in Arizona, New Mexico, Georgia, Mexico and Spain.  He retired in 1974 and moved to Oregon.

Dr. Taylor published many papers on anthropology and archaeology.  His most important work, "A Study of Archeology", is now in it's seventh printing and will remain a monument to his life.

Capt. Taylor resigned from the USMCR in 1955 and was buried with full-military honors at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in 1997.  He will be remembered as one of the less than dozen Marines who were assigned to HQMC, detached to the OSS and served in the European Theatre of Operations during WWII.

Prior to his enlisting in the USMC in 1942, Dr. Taylor had received his AB degree in Geology from Yale University in 1935.  This was followed by three years of field work in archaelogy working for first for the  the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. and then for the University of New Mexico field school in Chaco Canyon where he served as archaeoligical field foreman.

In 1938 he enrolled in the anthropology doctoral program at Harvard University.  In 1940 he undertook fieldwork in Coahuila, Mexico until 1942.