John W. Bennett was founder and first chair of the Department of Anthropology at Washington University. He died in St. Louis on February 1, 2005, at the age of 89.

Bennett earned a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1946. He taught sociology and anthropology at Ohio State University and started as professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis in 1959. He was one of the co-founders of a separate Department of Anthropology in 1967 and became its chair in the same year, continuing to serve in that capacity for 20 years. In 1987 he became Distinguished Anthropologist in Residence.

Bennett’s scholarly work spanned many fields ranging from archeology, sociology, East Asian studies, government and academic services, and ecological and agrarian development. In his later career, he focused on studies of American Indian groups, the social practices of Hutterites, and Euro-Canadian-American settlements.

In 2004 Bennett received the Bronislaw Malinowski Award from the Society for Applied Anthropology for his application of the social sciences to contemporary issues. In the same year, he received the David Plath Media Award from the Society for East Asian Anthropology for his book Japan 1948-1951: A Personal and Professional Memoir.