Ernest L Schusky. 88, died December 12, 2019, at Meridian Village, Edwardsville, from congestive heart failure and related complications. He was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, the only son of Lenora Davis Schusky and Ernest Schusky. His B.A. degree was from Miami University, Ohio; his PhD degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago. Schusky served in the U.S. Army in Korea (1954-55).
Schusky began his academic teaching career at South Dakota State University in 1958. In 1960 he joined the new campus of S.I.U.E. and developed the program in anthropology. He retired as emeritus professor in 1993. His professional career included a Fulbright in 1977 at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, as well as a summer Fulbright in India. He spent a year as an exchange professor at S.I.U., Carbondale, as well as a sabbatical at the London School of Economics. Lectureships included National Science Foundation invitations at Cornell College, Huron College, St. Xavier and the University Chicago and a semester at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where the family lived in a historic log cabin on campus. Schusky was a fellow of the American Anthropology Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology and served as President of Central States Anthrpology Society.
Schusky's scholarly research and writing emphasized Sioux Indians (his PhD dissertation studied the Lower Brule Sioux in South Dakota). The Right To Be Indian, 1965, is his most reprinted work; Introducing Culture was widely adopted as an introductory text and had four editions. A Manual for Kinship Analysis is still used in classroom teaching today. Several of his texts have been published in Korean, Japanese and Portuguese. Other titles included The Forgotten Sioux and Introduction to Social Science.
In retirement Schusky began writing fiction based on his lifelong commitment to Native American history and culture. His first novel, Journey to the Sun, described life at Cahokia Mounds @1,000 A.D. Other titles include Ride the Whirlwind (Pueblo Indians), Return to Beauty (Navajo) and Too Many Miracles, about the life of a Papago Indian Schusky interviewed as a graduate student at the University of Arizona. He was an active member of St. Francis United Methodist Church in Tucson, Arizona, and an associate member of the First United Methodist Church in Collinsville, Illinois.
As a boy scout Schusky spent summers in Michigan and earned Eagle Scout. Schusky married Mary Sue Dilliard in 1968 (they met in Lovejoy Library, S.I.U.E., where she was a reference librarian). For twenty years the Schuskys divided their time between Collinsville and Tucson where they enjoyed Arizona's beauty and weather and Mexico's culture. Favorite trips included China, Korea, South America and Australia. In recent years as health and energy curtailed travel, his happiest times were spent with family, especially his two grandchildren.
Schusky is survived by his wife of over 50 years, two sons, Mark Schusky, Collinsville, daughter-in-law Barbara Lindauer, and two grandchildren, Elliott and Margot, Collinsville, and Read Schusky, Boston.
Schusky chose cremation and private services will be held.
Memorial gifts may be made to American Heart Association, Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam and will be accepted at the funeral
home.
