Warren L. d'Azevedo Records of the Anthropology Department

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, interest in anthropological programs at the University of Nevada developed with the support of the Desert Research Institute and its Center for Western North American Studies. The Anthropology Department was initiated under joint sponsorship with the Desert Research Institute with funds from private and government foundations. Originally combined with the psychology department and the sociology department, it became separate in 1963, but still shared joint positions with the DRI. In 1967, the anthropology department was established.

Dr. Warren Leonard d'Azevedo (1920-2014), was born in Oakland, California, and received a bachelor's degree in Anthropology at UC Berkeley in 1942 after first attending Modesto Junior College and Fresno State University. He served in World War II in the Merchant Marines, and later worked on the Oakland docks. Pursuing an experience-based interest in labor issues, he began a graduate degree in anthropology at Berkeley in 1951. He did field work with the Wašiw people in Nevada. In 1953, d'Azevedo and his family moved to Illinois, where he studied with noted Africanist Melville J. Herskovits. A few years later, they moved to Liberia for his doctoral field work, where d'Azevedo began his lifelong relationship with the Gola people. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1960, d'Azevedo taught at Berkeley, the University of Utah, and the University of Pittsburgh, before the University of Nevada invited him to found an anthropology program in 1963. Under his leadership, the department became an internationally-recognized hub for the Great Basin and other international areas. His service work included the University Human Relations Action Council, which worked with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, advising in the formation of UNR Black Student Union, and support for Race Relations Center of Reno, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Nevada Intertribal Council. Dr. d'Azevedo retired from the University in 1988, though he kept working on his data analyses until shortly before his death in 2014. His bibliography is extensive and even includes some fiction and poetry.