Archaeologist. Lewis H. Larson was a renowned archaeologist who used his expertise over 50 years to promote the value of historic preservation throughout the nation. He was predeceased by his parents and brother. Lew never graduated from high school, Instead going straight to college and graduating from the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Eastern Kentucky University, and retired as a Professor of Anthropology at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. Lew was appointed the first State Archaeologist for the state of Georgia in 1972. He also directed the archaeological program for the Georgia Historical Commission, was a founding member of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, and later became a permanent member of the National Register Review Board. It was in 1954 that Lew began work at one of the most important prehistoric sites east of the Mississippi, the Etowah Mounds site in Cartersville, Georgia. Lew's work on Mound C at Etowah contributed to Southeastern archaeology important relics and knowledge on prehistoric Indians that occupied Georgia. At Etowah he was noted for discovering a pair of marble effigies like nothing ever seen before in the Americas. Throughout his busy career Lew also excavated sites on St. Catherine's Island, Pine Harbor, Sutherland Bluff, and Sapelo Island. One of his most important publications was the book Aboriginal Subsistence Technology on the Southeastern Coastal Plain during the Late Prehistoric Period. He was an outstanding field archaeologist, laboratory analyst, author, professor, and advocate. His concern for his students and colleagues was legendary. Longtime family friend Simon "Willie" Williams of Carrollton described Lew as "a person that always tried to help people so they could have a better life."