Prominent anthropologist made his mark in many areas

By: JEFF FRANK - Staff Writer | Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:18 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Two prestigious institutions on opposite ends of the country benefited from the work of Gordon D. Gibson.

An anthropologist by profession, Gibson was curator of African ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History from 1958 to 1983. During his tenure, he created an exhibit hall with 48 displays of African cultures.

After retiring to Escondido, he played a major role in the creation of the Nativescape Garden at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, organizing a record-keeping system that helped bring about the botanical garden's accreditation by the American Association of Museums.

"He did just what he wanted to," said Gibson's daughter, Linda Werner of Challis, Idaho. "Not everybody does that. He lived the life he wanted."

That life included many interests beyond anthropology and botany. When going through his south Escondido adobe home after her father took ill, Werner discovered thousands of papers and piles of books on a variety of subjects.

"There were books everywhere and thousands of papers on anything that struck his fancy: botany, religion, politics," said Werner. "Any topic he thought was interesting, he would cut out of the paper and put in a folder. He had hundreds of folders. ... It revealed a side of him I didn't know."

Gibson died Sept. 18 in an Escondido retirement residence. He was 92.

A brilliant student, Gibson, who was born June 22, 1915, in Vancouver, B.C., began his college career studying nuclear physics at Cal Tech. After taking a summer course in anthropology at UC Berkeley, he was so taken by the subject that he switched majors and schools, enrolling at the University of Chicago, where he earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.

While on a dig in southern Illinois in 1937, Gibson met fellow anthropology student Bethune Millen, who later founded the Anthropological Conservation Laboratory at the Smithsonian. They married a year later.

During World War II, Gibson taught mathematics in the Army Special Training Program at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, and later worked as a statistician at the Naval Ordnance Test Station in Inyokern. He taught for four years at the University of Utah before taking the position at the Smithsonian.

Gibson was most known for his studies of dual descent lineage systems in the Herero and Himba tribes in southwestern Africa. He made four research expeditions between 1952 and 1972 to Botswana, Namibia and Angola, taking his wife and two children along on the first two trips.

"The Himba had not been in contact with Europeans," said Werner. "For a lot of them, it was the first time they had ever seen white people. We certainly felt it. We got handled ---- they'd touch our hair ... it was very interesting. The tables kind of turned."

It was often a challenge to be the child of a genius, Werner said, but it did have some benefits. She got the chance to see President Lyndon Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey at the opening of the Smithsonian's Africa hall and encountered many leading lights of anthropology as well.

"It was very heady stuff for us kids. We grew up knowing Margaret Mead, Louis B. Leakey and other famous people," she said.

After leaving the Smithsonian, Gibson and his second wife, Mary, moved to Escondido, which had the right kind of climate for the South African plants he sought to grow. He continued working, giving lectures on African cultures, evolution and other topics to UCSD continuing education classes.

His love of botany led him to join the Palomar Cactus and Succulent Society, Quail Botanical Gardens and Lake Hodges Native Plant Club. It was with the latter group that he helped create the Nativescape Garden at the Wild Animal Park.

"I would say he was the main motivator and the main designer (of the garden)," said Pat Sigg, a longtime member of the native plant club.

Gibson concentrated on documenting each of the thousands of plants in the garden on cards, which were then entered into a computer record-keeping system.

"Because of the endangered and threatened species involved, the work that Gordon did was invaluable to that collection," said Cary Sharpe, Wild Animal Park horticulturist. "He documented and catalogued the plants in a way we can share with park guests."