Anthropologist. John Joseph Honigmann was one of the world's most illustrious anthropologists. He was born in the Bronx, New York on June 7, 1914, the only child of John Joseph Honigmann, Sr. and Agnes Lobe Honigmann. His family were Catholic immigrants from Austria. At age 10 John lost his father, and by age 15 John was working full time during the day to support his mother and going to high school at night. Beginning at age 14 whenever he had any down time, he would hitchhike around the northeastern U. S. and southeastern Canada. As a teenager in the early 1930s, John met his future wife, Jewish-born Irma Grabel Honigmann, when they were both students at the Eastern District Evening High School in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Irma began her undergraduate education at Hunter College Evening Session but moved on to Brooklyn College Evening Session where John was also a student. Theirs was a Romeo and Juliet romance. On October 2, 1937 at age 23, he married 21-year-old Irma over the religious objections of both their families. Before graduation both he and Irma had discovered anthropology, and Irma had given birth to their only son David John Honigmann. Shortly after John began graduate work at Yale University, the couple's only daughter Karen Jane Honigmann McHaney was born. Irma and the children often accompanied John on his fieldwork trips to the Canadian Subarctic, and he and Irma were often co-authors. Irma once described what it was like working with John "at our desks in the study; he organized and wrote, I collated data and read and edited his numerous drafts. We interrupted each other to test out ideas, air problems, argue solutions. Those were very good years. I hardly knew where my being ended and his began." For most of her life, she, John, and the children lived in Chapel Hill where John was a Professor of Anthropology. He was one of the most prolific teachers, researchers, and authors ever to come out of the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina. He founded the Southern Anthropological Society and served as SAS President in 1970-71. His most famous book may have been The Kaska Indians: An Ethnographic Reconstruction, but his publications were so many and his accomplishments so great that a 1978 issue of the American Anthropologist ran a nine-page obituary. According to Bryan Cummins, John Honigmann "is the only anthropologist whose research and field experience extend across the three northern culture areas of Canada – the Western Subarctic, the Eastern Subarctic and the Arctic." In the spring and summer of 1977, John's battle with cancer was nearing its end. He said to Irma, "Dying must be a very interesting experience. I hope I'm there when it happens." He is buried next to his beloved wife and scholarly colleague, Irma Grabel Honigmann, at Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery.