SPECIAL SECTION: IN MEMORIUM, GOTTFRIED O. "FRIEDL" LANG

Honoring Friedl: Applied Anthropology and Development of the High Plains Society

Carla Littlefield

Gottfried Otto Lang, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Colorado – Boulder until his death in 2011, was one of the founders of the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology. Affectionately known as Friedl to friends and colleagues, he was born in Oberammergau, Bavaria. He fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and became a U.S. citizen in 1945. With an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Cornell University, he came from a post at The Catholic University to a post at the University of Colorado in 1966 to assume the position of Professor of Anthropology. In 1981 he became the first elected chairperson of the High Plains Regional Section of the Society for Applied Anthropology. Through the next decade he guided the fledgling organization’s transition to independence as the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology (HPSfAA). This article is a tribute to Friedl and the importance of his role in the birth and development of HPSfAA, as well as to his influence on the field of applied anthropology.

The Applied Anthropologist, No. 2, Vol. 31, 2011, pp 2 - 7

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