Burton Benedict

Burton Benedict (May 20, 1923 – September 19, 2010) was an American anthropologist. He interrupted his studies at Harvard University to serve in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. After graduation he studied for a doctorate at the London School of Economics and afterwards carried out field work with the university and McGill University in Mauritius and the Seychelles. He joined the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968 and spent the rest of his career there, rising to dean of social sciences. He was made director of the university's Lowie Museum of Anthropology and was responsible for securing additional funding from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. He was director when the museum was renamed after one of its founders Phoebe Apperson Hearst. After retirement in 1994 he continued to volunteer at the museum and at the Oakland Zoo.

Early life Burton Benedict was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 20, 1923.

In 1982 he co-authored Men, Women and Money in Seychelles: Two Views with his wife Marion, whom he had married in 1950. The Berkeley News described the work as "groundbreaking" in the field of ethnography and called it a must read for anthropology students.

Hearst museum Benedict was appointed associate director of the museum in 1984, acting director in 1988 and director in 1989. In this role he transformed the museum, which had previously suffered from underfunding, by securing additional capital from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Benedict was also director when the museum was renamed the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology after Phoebe Apperson Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's mother and a 1901 founder of the museum. He died of heart failure at his home in Berkeley on September 19, 2010.