In memoriam

Dr. David Moyer, a long-time member of the anthropology department, died at his home on July 13. Born in Montreal and educated at Franklin & Marshall College, Harvard, and Universiteit Leiden in the Netherlands, David came to UVic in 1977 where he made valuable contributions to the department and the university community as a teacher, scholar and administrator before health problems, largely related to increasingly poor hearing, forced him to go on long-term disability leave.

David did ethnographic field research among the Canadian Inuit and in the Netherlands, and worked extensively with Malay legal texts from Indonesia. His major research areas were comparative law and structural and symbolic anthropology. His intellectual interests were wide-ranging and he was an engaging conversationalist on numerous anthropological, historical and literary topics. As an anthropologist, he was remarkable for his interest and skill in both literary and quantitative approaches to our understanding of what it is to be human.

From his undergraduate years onward, David was concerned with and active in the support of human rights. While living in Victoria, the primary focus of his activities in this area was on behalf of those with physical disabilities, particularly students.

Although he was in poor health in recent years, David remained a vital, ebullient personality with a zest for life. His sudden death at the age of 56 came as a shock to us all. He is greatly missed. David is survived by his wife, Gretchen (linguistics), and his sons, Colin and Ian, both UVic graduates. Those who wish to honour David’s memory are asked to send donations to the UVic Society for Students with a Disability, c/o the UVic development office.

The above tribute was written by Dr. Leland Donald, a friend and colleague.