West of the Thirties book cover. Courtesy image

By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos

Los Alamos Ranch School turned out many young men who were destined to make their mark on society. One of these young men was Edward T. Hall, who would become a noted cultural anthropologist.

Edward was born in 1914 in Webster Groves, Mo. Not much is known about his life before he attended the ranch school between 1926 and 1927, but he loved the Southwest. He left the school for Santa Fe, where he grew up and spent a lot of time with the artist colony.

Eventually, he earned a bachelor’s in anthropology from the University of Denver, a master’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a doctorate from Columbia University – finishing his last degree in 1942, in time to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers in World War II.

Returning to the Southwest, Edward took up his work from the 1930s, where he had spent time on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. Returning, he developed a cultural model of awareness over explicit messages that proved useful in studying different cultures.

All of this led to Edward’s respect and recognition as a noted anthropologist and writer. His famous book, West of the Thirties (1994), is still respected.

Edward Hall died in 2009, but his work on nonverbal communication is still revered.