The world was greatly diminished by the passing of Dr. Joffre Lanning9 Coe, PhD (Jesse Norman8, Samuel Francis7, Jesse W.6, Rev. John Jr.5, Capt. John4, Daniel3, Timothy2, Timothy1), professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Thursday, September 21, 2000. The preeminent authority on anthropology in Eastern North America, in North Carolina archaeology was measured in two periods: B.C. and A.C. – "before Coe" and "after Coe."
Joffre's eminence earned him many labels. He was called "Quiet Giant," "Intellectual Gunslinger," awe inspiring, perfectionist and no-nonsense taskmaster. Characterizing himself as simply "stubborn," he was considered the foremost authority on Eastern archaeology by his peers.
Born July 6, 1916, at Greensboro, NC, Joffre's ancestor John Coe settled there in 1784 after serving as captain of the Sinapuxent Battalion during the American Revolution. Joffre's great-great grandfather, Reverend John Coe, Jr., a prominent Methodist minister, founded Mt. Moriah Methodist Church, just south of Greensboro. Reverend Coe's nephew, General Levin H. Coe, was nominated for vice president of the United States in 1848.
Intrigued with archaeology as a child, Joffre spent his teen years writing to big-name archaeologists to learn how they pried information from the ground. By the time he entered the University of North Carolina in 1935 he had a singular goal — to do scientific excavations in North Carolina. In spite of the fact the university had no archaeology department at the time, that goal was more than accomplished over the course of the next 47 years.
Joffre began doing archaeological research through the auspices of the North Carolina Archaeology Society, an organization founded by Guy Johnson in 1933. Joffre met Johnson shortly after the society's first meeting. At the meeting the young student sat silently listening. At the second meeting he stood up and presented a plan for a statewide survey of Indian sites. Not content with talk, he set the example by surveying much of Transylvania County, on foot. Within the year Joffre found 32 Indian sites and collected nearly 2,000 specimens. Needless to say, Johnson was impressed. Young though he was, Joffre was said to possess archaeological skills outmatching anyone else's in the state. And he was anxious to put to work what he knew.
Johnson saw Joffre as the man to take charge of the society's excavations. Helped by other faculty, like James Bullitt of the university medical school, Johnson coaxed university officials to give Joffre space to store and study dig artifacts. From then on there wasn't a major dig in the state Joffre wasn't involved in. This was the beginning of an archaeological program at UNC.
Still, Joffre was working for the society, not the university. In 1939 university officials recognized the program started by Johnson and Coe. What Joffre was doing — a month in one location, a month in another — became known as the Laboratory of Anthropology.
The program lapsed when Joffre went off to serve with the US Air Force during WW II. It was resurrected in 1948, however, as the Research Laboratories of Anthropology. Joffre accepted an offer to become instructor and director. Building on the base he had established as an undergraduate student, Joffre launched the first steady, systematic study of the state's Indian cultures. Students working with him dug at his old sites and criss-crossed the state looking for new ones. By the time Joffre retired 34 years later, records at the Research Laboratories logged information on more than 10,000 sites throughout North Carolina.
According to an article in Carolina Alumni Review, before Joffre came on the scene nothing much was known of the state's Indian history. Specifically, North Carolina archaeology was lumped into two categories: Archaic and Woodland. Joffre' s studies pushed the state's prehistory back 12,000 years and identified several different cultures.
In 1964 Joffre came out with "The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont" (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society), unraveling the mystery. "Coe was the first to sort all that out using excavation data from North Carolina," said Vincas Steponaitis, who took over as director of the Research Laboratories in 1988. J. Jefferson Reid, a former Coe student and director of the nation's top-ranked field school at Grasshopper, AZ, went on to say, "Before that publication, time was random. Afterward, time was ordered. I cannot think of any single work dealing with the archaeology of the East that is more important or more cited. It underscores Joffre's unique genius that he was able to put together that sequence using sites in order to make sense of 12,000 years of prehistory." Lewis Binford, a Coe student and now a professor at the University of New Mexico, added "Joffre was, for certain personalities, a perfect teacher."
Recognition came to Joffre in more than kudos from students. On November 5, 1989, the importance of his work was recognized by the federal government when they designated his Hardaway site, on the Yadkin River, as a National Historic Landmark. This was only the second archaeological site in North Carolina to be raised to such status. The other site — Town Creek Indian Mound in Montgomery County — is also Joffre's, and attracts between 35,000 and 40,000 visitors each year.
When Joffre started he was North Carolina's sole professional archaeologist. Slowly, persistently, he molded UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology into one of the premier research centers in the Southeast. Today, his students are scattered across the state and throughout the country. They pass on his skills and knowledge, handing down what has become known as the "Coe style" of quality field and laboratory work and of sound interpretations.
He attended Brevard College, 1934-35; University of Chicago, 1935; University of North Carolina, 1935-38; University of Wisconsin, 1936; University of Michigan, 1946-48, 1952-53; and received degrees in Sociology, University of North Carolina, 1944 (AB); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1948 (MA); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1959 (PhD). From 1948 to 1972 he was executive secretary of the Archaeological Society of North America; 1953-54, president of the same society; from 1937 to 2000, director of the Town Creek Archaeological Project; 1950, 1954, 1958, chairman, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1948-54, director of Research, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; 1960-64, president, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; and 1965-75, director, National Science Foundation, University of North Carolina, Cherokee Project.
He was assistant director, Laboratory of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1938-42; state director, University of North Carolina, WPA, 1939-42; US Air Force, 1942-46, major; director, Research Laboratories of Anthropology and Instructor Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1948-82; assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1952-60; associate professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1960-65; North Carolina state archaeologist, 1962-82; professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1965-82; professor emeritus of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1982-2000.
He received the following honors: 1936-37, University Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1937-39, Service Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1947-48, Aboriginal North American Research Fellowship, University of Michigan; 1952-53, General Education Board Fellow, University of Michigan; 1980, Ruth Coltrane Cannon Award; 1981, Plenary Session in Honor of Joffre L. Coe, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1981, Honorary Fellow, Lower Mississippi Survey, Harvard University; "Structure and Process in Southeastern Archaeology," a symposium in honor of Joffre Lanning Coe; 1982, National Award of Merit, The American Association of State and Local History; and in 1983, Fiftieth Anniversary Honor Award, The Society for American Archaeology.
He is survived by his wife of fifty years, Sarah Blanche (Denton) Coe of Chapel Hill, and sons Joffre Lanning Coe II of Hillsborough, NC, and Damon Denton Coe of Rustburg, VA. He was my friend and he will be greatly missed.
Joffre's eminence earned him many labels. He was called "Quiet Giant," "Intellectual Gunslinger," awe inspiring, perfectionist and no-nonsense taskmaster. Characterizing himself as simply "stubborn," he was considered the foremost authority on Eastern archaeology by his peers.
Born July 6, 1916, at Greensboro, NC, Joffre's ancestor John Coe settled there in 1784 after serving as captain of the Sinapuxent Battalion during the American Revolution. Joffre's great-great grandfather, Reverend John Coe, Jr., a prominent Methodist minister, founded Mt. Moriah Methodist Church, just south of Greensboro. Reverend Coe's nephew, General Levin H. Coe, was nominated for vice president of the United States in 1848.
Intrigued with archaeology as a child, Joffre spent his teen years writing to big-name archaeologists to learn how they pried information from the ground. By the time he entered the University of North Carolina in 1935 he had a singular goal — to do scientific excavations in North Carolina. In spite of the fact the university had no archaeology department at the time, that goal was more than accomplished over the course of the next 47 years.
Joffre began doing archaeological research through the auspices of the North Carolina Archaeology Society, an organization founded by Guy Johnson in 1933. Joffre met Johnson shortly after the society's first meeting. At the meeting the young student sat silently listening. At the second meeting he stood up and presented a plan for a statewide survey of Indian sites. Not content with talk, he set the example by surveying much of Transylvania County, on foot. Within the year Joffre found 32 Indian sites and collected nearly 2,000 specimens. Needless to say, Johnson was impressed. Young though he was, Joffre was said to possess archaeological skills outmatching anyone else's in the state. And he was anxious to put to work what he knew.
Johnson saw Joffre as the man to take charge of the society's excavations. Helped by other faculty, like James Bullitt of the university medical school, Johnson coaxed university officials to give Joffre space to store and study dig artifacts. From then on there wasn't a major dig in the state Joffre wasn't involved in. This was the beginning of an archaeological program at UNC.
Still, Joffre was working for the society, not the university. In 1939 university officials recognized the program started by Johnson and Coe. What Joffre was doing — a month in one location, a month in another — became known as the Laboratory of Anthropology.
The program lapsed when Joffre went off to serve with the US Air Force during WW II. It was resurrected in 1948, however, as the Research Laboratories of Anthropology. Joffre accepted an offer to become instructor and director. Building on the base he had established as an undergraduate student, Joffre launched the first steady, systematic study of the state's Indian cultures. Students working with him dug at his old sites and criss-crossed the state looking for new ones. By the time Joffre retired 34 years later, records at the Research Laboratories logged information on more than 10,000 sites throughout North Carolina.
According to an article in Carolina Alumni Review, before Joffre came on the scene nothing much was known of the state's Indian history. Specifically, North Carolina archaeology was lumped into two categories: Archaic and Woodland. Joffre' s studies pushed the state's prehistory back 12,000 years and identified several different cultures.
In 1964 Joffre came out with "The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont" (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society), unraveling the mystery. "Coe was the first to sort all that out using excavation data from North Carolina," said Vincas Steponaitis, who took over as director of the Research Laboratories in 1988. J. Jefferson Reid, a former Coe student and director of the nation's top-ranked field school at Grasshopper, AZ, went on to say, "Before that publication, time was random. Afterward, time was ordered. I cannot think of any single work dealing with the archaeology of the East that is more important or more cited. It underscores Joffre's unique genius that he was able to put together that sequence using sites in order to make sense of 12,000 years of prehistory." Lewis Binford, a Coe student and now a professor at the University of New Mexico, added "Joffre was, for certain personalities, a perfect teacher."
Recognition came to Joffre in more than kudos from students. On November 5, 1989, the importance of his work was recognized by the federal government when they designated his Hardaway site, on the Yadkin River, as a National Historic Landmark. This was only the second archaeological site in North Carolina to be raised to such status. The other site — Town Creek Indian Mound in Montgomery County — is also Joffre's, and attracts between 35,000 and 40,000 visitors each year.
When Joffre started he was North Carolina's sole professional archaeologist. Slowly, persistently, he molded UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology into one of the premier research centers in the Southeast. Today, his students are scattered across the state and throughout the country. They pass on his skills and knowledge, handing down what has become known as the "Coe style" of quality field and laboratory work and of sound interpretations.
He attended Brevard College, 1934-35; University of Chicago, 1935; University of North Carolina, 1935-38; University of Wisconsin, 1936; University of Michigan, 1946-48, 1952-53; and received degrees in Sociology, University of North Carolina, 1944 (AB); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1948 (MA); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1959 (PhD). From 1948 to 1972 he was executive secretary of the Archaeological Society of North America; 1953-54, president of the same society; from 1937 to 2000, director of the Town Creek Archaeological Project; 1950, 1954, 1958, chairman, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1948-54, director of Research, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; 1960-64, president, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; and 1965-75, director, National Science Foundation, University of North Carolina, Cherokee Project.
He was assistant director, Laboratory of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1938-42; state director, University of North Carolina, WPA, 1939-42; US Air Force, 1942-46, major; director, Research Laboratories of Anthropology and Instructor Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1948-82; assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1952-60; associate professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1960-65; North Carolina state archaeologist, 1962-82; professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1965-82; professor emeritus of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1982-2000.
He received the following honors: 1936-37, University Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1937-39, Service Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1947-48, Aboriginal North American Research Fellowship, University of Michigan; 1952-53, General Education Board Fellow, University of Michigan; 1980, Ruth Coltrane Cannon Award; 1981, Plenary Session in Honor of Joffre L. Coe, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1981, Honorary Fellow, Lower Mississippi Survey, Harvard University; "Structure and Process in Southeastern Archaeology," a symposium in honor of Joffre Lanning Coe; 1982, National Award of Merit, The American Association of State and Local History; and in 1983, Fiftieth Anniversary Honor Award, The Society for American Archaeology.
He is survived by his wife of fifty years, Sarah Blanche (Denton) Coe of Chapel Hill, and sons Joffre Lanning Coe II of Hillsborough, NC, and Damon Denton Coe of Rustburg, VA. He was my friend and he will be greatly missed.
The world was greatly diminished by the passing of Dr. Joffre Lanning9 Coe, PhD (Jesse Norman8, Samuel Francis7, Jesse W.6, Rev. John Jr.5, Capt. John4, Daniel3, Timothy2, Timothy1), professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Thursday, September 21, 2000. The preeminent authority on anthropology in Eastern North America, in North Carolina archaeology was measured in two periods: B.C. and A.C. – "before Coe" and "after Coe."
Joffre's eminence earned him many labels. He was called "Quiet Giant," "Intellectual Gunslinger," awe inspiring, perfectionist and no-nonsense taskmaster. Characterizing himself as simply "stubborn," he was considered the foremost authority on Eastern archaeology by his peers.
Born July 6, 1916, at Greensboro, NC, Joffre's ancestor John Coe settled there in 1784 after serving as captain of the Sinapuxent Battalion during the American Revolution. Joffre's great-great grandfather, Reverend John Coe, Jr., a prominent Methodist minister, founded Mt. Moriah Methodist Church, just south of Greensboro. Reverend Coe's nephew, General Levin H. Coe, was nominated for vice president of the United States in 1848.
Intrigued with archaeology as a child, Joffre spent his teen years writing to big-name archaeologists to learn how they pried information from the ground. By the time he entered the University of North Carolina in 1935 he had a singular goal — to do scientific excavations in North Carolina. In spite of the fact the university had no archaeology department at the time, that goal was more than accomplished over the course of the next 47 years.
Joffre began doing archaeological research through the auspices of the North Carolina Archaeology Society, an organization founded by Guy Johnson in 1933. Joffre met Johnson shortly after the society's first meeting. At the meeting the young student sat silently listening. At the second meeting he stood up and presented a plan for a statewide survey of Indian sites. Not content with talk, he set the example by surveying much of Transylvania County, on foot. Within the year Joffre found 32 Indian sites and collected nearly 2,000 specimens. Needless to say, Johnson was impressed. Young though he was, Joffre was said to possess archaeological skills outmatching anyone else's in the state. And he was anxious to put to work what he knew.
Johnson saw Joffre as the man to take charge of the society's excavations. Helped by other faculty, like James Bullitt of the university medical school, Johnson coaxed university officials to give Joffre space to store and study dig artifacts. From then on there wasn't a major dig in the state Joffre wasn't involved in. This was the beginning of an archaeological program at UNC.
Still, Joffre was working for the society, not the university. In 1939 university officials recognized the program started by Johnson and Coe. What Joffre was doing — a month in one location, a month in another — became known as the Laboratory of Anthropology.
The program lapsed when Joffre went off to serve with the US Air Force during WW II. It was resurrected in 1948, however, as the Research Laboratories of Anthropology. Joffre accepted an offer to become instructor and director. Building on the base he had established as an undergraduate student, Joffre launched the first steady, systematic study of the state's Indian cultures. Students working with him dug at his old sites and criss-crossed the state looking for new ones. By the time Joffre retired 34 years later, records at the Research Laboratories logged information on more than 10,000 sites throughout North Carolina.
According to an article in Carolina Alumni Review, before Joffre came on the scene nothing much was known of the state's Indian history. Specifically, North Carolina archaeology was lumped into two categories: Archaic and Woodland. Joffre' s studies pushed the state's prehistory back 12,000 years and identified several different cultures.
In 1964 Joffre came out with "The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont" (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society), unraveling the mystery. "Coe was the first to sort all that out using excavation data from North Carolina," said Vincas Steponaitis, who took over as director of the Research Laboratories in 1988. J. Jefferson Reid, a former Coe student and director of the nation's top-ranked field school at Grasshopper, AZ, went on to say, "Before that publication, time was random. Afterward, time was ordered. I cannot think of any single work dealing with the archaeology of the East that is more important or more cited. It underscores Joffre's unique genius that he was able to put together that sequence using sites in order to make sense of 12,000 years of prehistory." Lewis Binford, a Coe student and now a professor at the University of New Mexico, added "Joffre was, for certain personalities, a perfect teacher."
Recognition came to Joffre in more than kudos from students. On November 5, 1989, the importance of his work was recognized by the federal government when they designated his Hardaway site, on the Yadkin River, as a National Historic Landmark. This was only the second archaeological site in North Carolina to be raised to such status. The other site — Town Creek Indian Mound in Montgomery County — is also Joffre's, and attracts between 35,000 and 40,000 visitors each year.
When Joffre started he was North Carolina's sole professional archaeologist. Slowly, persistently, he molded UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology into one of the premier research centers in the Southeast. Today, his students are scattered across the state and throughout the country. They pass on his skills and knowledge, handing down what has become known as the "Coe style" of quality field and laboratory work and of sound interpretations.
He attended Brevard College, 1934-35; University of Chicago, 1935; University of North Carolina, 1935-38; University of Wisconsin, 1936; University of Michigan, 1946-48, 1952-53; and received degrees in Sociology, University of North Carolina, 1944 (AB); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1948 (MA); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1959 (PhD). From 1948 to 1972 he was executive secretary of the Archaeological Society of North America; 1953-54, president of the same society; from 1937 to 2000, director of the Town Creek Archaeological Project; 1950, 1954, 1958, chairman, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1948-54, director of Research, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; 1960-64, president, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; and 1965-75, director, National Science Foundation, University of North Carolina, Cherokee Project.
He was assistant director, Laboratory of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1938-42; state director, University of North Carolina, WPA, 1939-42; US Air Force, 1942-46, major; director, Research Laboratories of Anthropology and Instructor Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1948-82; assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1952-60; associate professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1960-65; North Carolina state archaeologist, 1962-82; professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1965-82; professor emeritus of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1982-2000.
He received the following honors: 1936-37, University Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1937-39, Service Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1947-48, Aboriginal North American Research Fellowship, University of Michigan; 1952-53, General Education Board Fellow, University of Michigan; 1980, Ruth Coltrane Cannon Award; 1981, Plenary Session in Honor of Joffre L. Coe, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1981, Honorary Fellow, Lower Mississippi Survey, Harvard University; "Structure and Process in Southeastern Archaeology," a symposium in honor of Joffre Lanning Coe; 1982, National Award of Merit, The American Association of State and Local History; and in 1983, Fiftieth Anniversary Honor Award, The Society for American Archaeology.
He is survived by his wife of fifty years, Sarah Blanche (Denton) Coe of Chapel Hill, and sons Joffre Lanning Coe II of Hillsborough, NC, and Damon Denton Coe of Rustburg, VA. He was my friend and he will be greatly missed.
Joffre's eminence earned him many labels. He was called "Quiet Giant," "Intellectual Gunslinger," awe inspiring, perfectionist and no-nonsense taskmaster. Characterizing himself as simply "stubborn," he was considered the foremost authority on Eastern archaeology by his peers.
Born July 6, 1916, at Greensboro, NC, Joffre's ancestor John Coe settled there in 1784 after serving as captain of the Sinapuxent Battalion during the American Revolution. Joffre's great-great grandfather, Reverend John Coe, Jr., a prominent Methodist minister, founded Mt. Moriah Methodist Church, just south of Greensboro. Reverend Coe's nephew, General Levin H. Coe, was nominated for vice president of the United States in 1848.
Intrigued with archaeology as a child, Joffre spent his teen years writing to big-name archaeologists to learn how they pried information from the ground. By the time he entered the University of North Carolina in 1935 he had a singular goal — to do scientific excavations in North Carolina. In spite of the fact the university had no archaeology department at the time, that goal was more than accomplished over the course of the next 47 years.
Joffre began doing archaeological research through the auspices of the North Carolina Archaeology Society, an organization founded by Guy Johnson in 1933. Joffre met Johnson shortly after the society's first meeting. At the meeting the young student sat silently listening. At the second meeting he stood up and presented a plan for a statewide survey of Indian sites. Not content with talk, he set the example by surveying much of Transylvania County, on foot. Within the year Joffre found 32 Indian sites and collected nearly 2,000 specimens. Needless to say, Johnson was impressed. Young though he was, Joffre was said to possess archaeological skills outmatching anyone else's in the state. And he was anxious to put to work what he knew.
Johnson saw Joffre as the man to take charge of the society's excavations. Helped by other faculty, like James Bullitt of the university medical school, Johnson coaxed university officials to give Joffre space to store and study dig artifacts. From then on there wasn't a major dig in the state Joffre wasn't involved in. This was the beginning of an archaeological program at UNC.
Still, Joffre was working for the society, not the university. In 1939 university officials recognized the program started by Johnson and Coe. What Joffre was doing — a month in one location, a month in another — became known as the Laboratory of Anthropology.
The program lapsed when Joffre went off to serve with the US Air Force during WW II. It was resurrected in 1948, however, as the Research Laboratories of Anthropology. Joffre accepted an offer to become instructor and director. Building on the base he had established as an undergraduate student, Joffre launched the first steady, systematic study of the state's Indian cultures. Students working with him dug at his old sites and criss-crossed the state looking for new ones. By the time Joffre retired 34 years later, records at the Research Laboratories logged information on more than 10,000 sites throughout North Carolina.
According to an article in Carolina Alumni Review, before Joffre came on the scene nothing much was known of the state's Indian history. Specifically, North Carolina archaeology was lumped into two categories: Archaic and Woodland. Joffre' s studies pushed the state's prehistory back 12,000 years and identified several different cultures.
In 1964 Joffre came out with "The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont" (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society), unraveling the mystery. "Coe was the first to sort all that out using excavation data from North Carolina," said Vincas Steponaitis, who took over as director of the Research Laboratories in 1988. J. Jefferson Reid, a former Coe student and director of the nation's top-ranked field school at Grasshopper, AZ, went on to say, "Before that publication, time was random. Afterward, time was ordered. I cannot think of any single work dealing with the archaeology of the East that is more important or more cited. It underscores Joffre's unique genius that he was able to put together that sequence using sites in order to make sense of 12,000 years of prehistory." Lewis Binford, a Coe student and now a professor at the University of New Mexico, added "Joffre was, for certain personalities, a perfect teacher."
Recognition came to Joffre in more than kudos from students. On November 5, 1989, the importance of his work was recognized by the federal government when they designated his Hardaway site, on the Yadkin River, as a National Historic Landmark. This was only the second archaeological site in North Carolina to be raised to such status. The other site — Town Creek Indian Mound in Montgomery County — is also Joffre's, and attracts between 35,000 and 40,000 visitors each year.
When Joffre started he was North Carolina's sole professional archaeologist. Slowly, persistently, he molded UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology into one of the premier research centers in the Southeast. Today, his students are scattered across the state and throughout the country. They pass on his skills and knowledge, handing down what has become known as the "Coe style" of quality field and laboratory work and of sound interpretations.
He attended Brevard College, 1934-35; University of Chicago, 1935; University of North Carolina, 1935-38; University of Wisconsin, 1936; University of Michigan, 1946-48, 1952-53; and received degrees in Sociology, University of North Carolina, 1944 (AB); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1948 (MA); Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1959 (PhD). From 1948 to 1972 he was executive secretary of the Archaeological Society of North America; 1953-54, president of the same society; from 1937 to 2000, director of the Town Creek Archaeological Project; 1950, 1954, 1958, chairman, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1948-54, director of Research, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; 1960-64, president, Eastern States Archaeological Federation; and 1965-75, director, National Science Foundation, University of North Carolina, Cherokee Project.
He was assistant director, Laboratory of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1938-42; state director, University of North Carolina, WPA, 1939-42; US Air Force, 1942-46, major; director, Research Laboratories of Anthropology and Instructor Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1948-82; assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1952-60; associate professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1960-65; North Carolina state archaeologist, 1962-82; professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 1965-82; professor emeritus of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1982-2000.
He received the following honors: 1936-37, University Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1937-39, Service Scholarship, University of North Carolina; 1947-48, Aboriginal North American Research Fellowship, University of Michigan; 1952-53, General Education Board Fellow, University of Michigan; 1980, Ruth Coltrane Cannon Award; 1981, Plenary Session in Honor of Joffre L. Coe, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; 1981, Honorary Fellow, Lower Mississippi Survey, Harvard University; "Structure and Process in Southeastern Archaeology," a symposium in honor of Joffre Lanning Coe; 1982, National Award of Merit, The American Association of State and Local History; and in 1983, Fiftieth Anniversary Honor Award, The Society for American Archaeology.
He is survived by his wife of fifty years, Sarah Blanche (Denton) Coe of Chapel Hill, and sons Joffre Lanning Coe II of Hillsborough, NC, and Damon Denton Coe of Rustburg, VA. He was my friend and he will be greatly missed.
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