Mary Shepardson

Mary Thygeson Shepardson (May 26, 1906 - March 30, 1997) was an American anthropologist who researched and published extensively on the Navajo people of the American Southwest.

Early life Shepardson was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 26, 1906, as the fourth child to suffragette Sylvie Thompson Thygeson and Nels Marcus Thygeson. Her parents were both described as educated and well-informed on social justice issues of the day, such as birth control, women's suffrage, and racial equality. Nels died when Shepardson was eleven, which was a devastating event for the family.

Education Shepardson studied at Stanford beginning when she was 16, in 1922. She graduated cum laude in 1928, but not before studying at the Sorbonne in 1925 and the London School of Economics in 1926.

Shepardson returned to Stanford for her master's degree, graduating in 1956. She continued on for a PhD at University of California at Berkeley, earning that in only four years, in 1960, just as she turned fifty-four.