Education: Death of a Scholar

As it must to all men, death came last week to 74-year-old, white-maned Aleš Hrdlička (pronounced Alesh Hur-dlich-ka), second great physical anthropologist to die within a year. Like Franz Boas (TIME, Jan. 4), the Smithsonian Institution's scholar was no dull academician, although even on trips to the ends of the earth he wore "gates ajar" collars. Hrdlička did much to disprove Nazi race dogma. For many summers he hunted in Alaska and the Aleutians for proof that aborigines came to America over those steppingstones. He denied that high brows indicate braininess, dug up an Aleutian skull larger than Daniel...