Bio Sketch
A Bit about Me
I was born December 14, 1941 in Moore County Hospital in Pinehurst, North Carolina. My father’s family had lived in the region since emigrating from the Scottish Highlands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. My mother’s maternal family came from Pembroke, North Carolina where they lived as part of the Native American community now called the Lumbee Tribe; her paternal family was descended German settlers in northern South Carolina . When I was seven and in the first grade, my family moved to Forsyth County, North Carolina, where my father worked for Piedmont Airlines in Winston-Salem. I consider Forsyth County/Winston-Salem, particularly the Guthrie community between Winston-Salem and Kernersville, as my childhood home. On graduating Walkertown High School, I went to North Carolina State University where I received baccalaureate and master’s degrees in mechanical/aerospace engineering. During college engineering-internships I worked for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Piedmont Airlines and Douglas Aircraft.
On finishing studies at N. C. State, I enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where I studied anthropological archaeology under the mentorship of Professor Joffre Coe. Following graduate school, I taught two years with Southeastern archaeologist William (Bill) Sears at Florida Atlantic University, then came to the University of South Carolina in the spring of 1972. At USC, I worked as a research and teaching faculty member until retirement in 2002. In the 1970s, I made the transition from prehistoric archaeology to historical archaeology under the mentorship of archaeologist Stanley South. Following retirement, I have continued part-time work in archaeology and mentoring.
In middle 1970s, my former wife Annette Walker (1943-2019) and I, together with our dear friend Carol Jackson Speight (1944-2002) bought an old, grown-up cotton farm in northern Richland County along the banks of Cedar Creek, and I have ever since lived on this land surrounded by friends and neighbors. My wife, Aline Allston Ferguson, and I were married May 7 1988. Together, we have reared two wonderful people, son Sam and daughter Amy. On September 22, 2018 Amy married John-Garrett Cook, and he has become another son in our Cedar Creek home and community.
My retirement days in Cedar Creek are spent working on our home and “farm,” playing with our dog Gryffindor, walking and birding the countryside, and entertaining dear friends, both personal and professional. If you like, please contact me via this website and come visit!