Alan Walker

The Penn State community is mourning the death of Alan Walker, Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Biology, who passed away on Nov. 20. He was 79 years old. Walker was born in Leicester, England on August 23, 1938. He was the second of four sons born to Cyril Walker and Edith Tidd Walker. Following his childhood fascination with animals and fossils, Walker graduated with honors in the natural sciences (geology, zoology, mineralogy, petrology, and paleontology). He then obtained a grant to attend the University of London, where he earned a doctorate in anatomy and paleontology under the mentorship of John Napier. After graduating from the University of London, Walker embarked on a career that established him as one of the leading anthropologists and evolutionary biologists of his generation. Walker is especially known for being part of the team led by Richard Leakey that discovered the skeleton of the “Turkana Boy” in 1984, and for his own discovery of the Black Skull near Lake Turkana in Kenya in 1985. He also shaped one of the most innovative anatomy programs in the United States at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Walker left Johns Hopkins to join the Penn State faculty in 1995. He became a distinguished professor in 1996 and then an Evan Pugh Professor in 2002 before retiring with emeritus status in 2010. Walker received numerous accolades for his work, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Walker is survived by his wife of 42 years, former Penn State anthropology professor and author Pat Shipman, of Moncure, North Carolina; his elder brother, Trevor, and younger brother, Michael, both of whom live in England; and his son, Simon; daughter-in-law, Shellene; and granddaughters, Bryn and Meghan, of Morrisville, North Carolina. In addition to his parents, Walker was preceded in death by his first wife, Patricia Nicholson, and younger brother, Gerald.