In Memoriam: Hildred Storey Geertz. 1927-2022

Hildred Storey Geertz, a longtime faculty member at Princeton University in New Jersey, died late last month at her home in Princeton. She was 95 years old.

Born in Queens, New York, on February 12, 1927, Professor Geertz grew up there and in Teaneck, New Jersey. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Antioch College in 1948 and her Ph.D. in social anthropology from Radcliffe College in 1956.

Dr. Geertz taught at the University of Chicago from 1960 to 1970 before coming to the anthropology department at Princeton University in 1970. At Princeton, she taught courses on the history of anthropological theory, the anthropological study of life stories, the anthropology of art, and the ethnographer’s craft.

Professor Geertz was the first woman to chair an academic department at Princeton University and was only the third woman professor to be awarded tenure.

Dr. Geertz did extensive fieldwork in Indonesia and Morroco. She authored many books including The Javanese Family: A Study of Kinship and Socialization (Free Press of Glencoe, 1961) and Images of Power: Balinese Paintings Made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead (University of Hawaii Press, 1995).

Dr. Geertz retired from teaching in 1998 and was named professor emerita.