In Memoriam: Mary Carolyn Beaudry, 1951-2020

Mary Beaudry, professor of archaeology and of anthropology at Boston University, who also taught in Metropolitan College’s Gastronomy Program, died from complications of an existing heart condition on October 20 after undergoing surgery. She was 69 years old.

Professor Beaudry grew up in a military family, moving around frequently before eventually settling in Virginia. She earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She went on to study for a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Dr. Beaudry joined the faculty at Boston University in 1980 as an assistant professor of anthropology.

Throughout her career, Beaudry conducted fieldwork all around New England, as well as the Western Isles of Scotland and Montserrat in the Caribbean. Her research interests included historical and industrial archaeology of the Americas and the British Isles, gender and equity issues in the field, cookery and dining, and the archaeology of historical households.

Professor Beaudry was the author or editor of 11 books, including her latest work The Historical Archaeology of Shadow and Intimate Economies (University Press of Florida, 2019). In 2013 she won the J. C. Harrington Award from the Society for Historical Archaeology. The award is presented for a “life-time of contributions to the discipline centered on scholarship”.