ASAA LIFETIME MEMBERS
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New England Society for Amateur Archaeology Bill and Whitney Moody, PO Box 1617, W. Tisbury, Massachusetts 02575. Email: [email protected]. Phone number: 508-939-9053.
T. Beutell (1994); O. Kirk Spurr (1997); Ronald Brooks (1999); Dennis Vesper (2002); Jim Schuppert (2004); Ed Cox (2004); Elmer Guerri (2004); Robert L. Knight (2007)
2017 ASAA Lifetime Achievement Award Wendy Zebehazy
1) Group of ASAA Members (Carl Kowalski, Wendy Zebehazy, Richard Sojka, Don Munroe and Mike McNew — in foreground) upon the occasion of Wendy’s Lifetime Achievement Award presentation. Photo taken at Joe Wheeler State Park, Alabama, May, 2016.
2) Three diligent workers pausing for a “photo-op” inside Ronnie Clark’s Cave, Tuscumbia, Alabama, May, 2016. Wendy Zebehazy is the masked figure on the right.
ASAA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
2007 – Valerie Waldorf
2008 – Buddy Page
2009 – Pete Bostrom
2010 – O. Kirk Spurr
2011 – Del Beck
2012 – Charles Moore
2013 – Carl Yahnig
2014 – Richard Sojka and Carl Kowalski
2015 – Richard Michael Gramly
2016 – Robert Knight and Don Munroe
2017 – Wendy Zebehazy
2018 – Marge and Joe Finneran
POSTHUMOUS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (2018) FOR ASAA MEMBERS MARGE and JOE FINNERAN, WALPOLE, MA
Death stole in and took Marge and Joe from us before we were able to acknowledge their dedication to amateur archaeology and their many good works. We had prepared (well in advance) award placques for 2016, 2017, and 2018; however, we were able to present one to Marge and Joe only posthumously at the September, 2015, meeting of the New England Society for Amateur Archaeology — which organization Joe and Marge had helped to found.
Native New Englanders, Joe and Marge were 65 and 62 years old at their deaths in September. Marge (a descendant of the Crandall and Lamphear families who had settled Rhode Island during the 17th century) married Joe in 1983. She is survived by children from her first marriage. Joe, one of eight children, grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts and had an early interest in Native Americans, rocks and minerals, and the outdoors. He is survived by a brother and three sisters.
As for many Americans of their generation, the Viet Nam War defined their present and future. Joe volunteered for the Marines and saw action near the end of that unfortunate conflict, which cost the United States so many of its sons and daughters and so much of its spirit. During his unit’s (Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines) occupation of a dug-in position near the DMZ and An Hoa, he was exposed to Agent Orange. Returning to the USA, his pancreas was removed and he became diabetic. For the next 45 years this malady would plague him and his spouse, Marge who eventually became his primary care-giver.
Unable to hold regular employment, Joe devoted himself to a study of the past. Although he and Marge had deep friendships with Massachusetts Native Americans and were students of the early historic era in New England, their particular interest became the initial peopling of the New World. For several years they conducted archaeological excavations at the Late Palaeo-American WAMSUTTA site (aka Neponset site). They did much to bring attention to the rich archaeological record of southeastern Massachusetts by publishing essays in archaeological journals, by lecturing, by actively corresponding with fellow researchers, and by displaying artifacts from New England at national meetings.
Joe and Marge were colleagues of a wide company of fellow amateur archaeologists in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont. This band of brothers and sisters salutes them in science and remembers them in love.
Richard Michael Gramly