Family and background, Ottumwa, Iowa; anthropology at Northwestern, Melville Herskovits; Ph. D. at UC Berkeley, Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie; first travel to Mexico; marriage to Mary LeCron, 1938, and trip to Austria; research with Sierra Popoluca, 1940-1941; teaching at Syracuse and UCLA; colleagues and work at Smithsonian Institution, Washington and Mexico: Institute of Inter-American Affairs, Institute of Social Anthropology, 1943-1953, start of long-term field research in Tzintzuntzan, sabbatical in Spain; UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology since 1953: planning Kroeber Hall, course work, administration, expanding faculty, Ph. D. curricula, funding students; American Anthropological Association presidency; sixties, seventies issues of free speech, ethics, Vietnam war; evolution of medical anthropology; community development advisory role for World Health Organization, Agency for International Development; discusses field work, writing, students, personal change, beliefs, family, friendships, and some current issues in anthropology.