Terry Booth

September 21, 1940 - August 11, 2020

Terry Lee Booth, 79, Topeka, Kansas died Tuesday, August 11, 2020. Terry was born in Staples, Minnesota on September 21, 1940, to Charles Guy and Mary Elizabeth (Longbella) Booth. He was raised in Osseo, Minnesota graduating from Osseo High School in 1958 where he was active in theater, music, debate, yearbook, AV projection squad, and track. As a young boy and throughout his life he was an outdoorsman, eventually committed to bow-and-arrow marksmanship and catch-and-release fishing with his grandson. Following three years in the Navy as a missile man, he enrolled in the University of Minnesota where he majored in anthropology and minored in geology and art, graduating with a BA in 1966. He earned an MA in anthropology at the University of New Mexico in 1969 and began teaching at Washburn University in Topeka that fall. While teaching full-time, he finished the classwork and Ph. D dissertation in Educational Anthropology at the University of Kansas in 1987. His academic interests within anthropology broadened through his 32 years of teaching. He began as an archaeologist and morphed into a teacher who saw relationships between historic and current cultural phenomena and his science: schooling, race relations, peace studies, and conflict resolution. He was awarded three Sweet Summer Sabbaticals each to locations where he further validated his academic credentials by observation and experience. The first was a solo trip to indigenous sites in the South Pacific. Next, he camped with his family through two nine-week summers in a VW bus while navigating a butterfly shaped route through Native American sites in the US and Canada. Terry was determined to teach his students research skills. He had a career-long practice of onsite instruction in Washburn’s Mabee Library. After retirement genealogy became a passion as he researched the branches of his family of origin. Throughout his life Terry was a conservationist committed to caring for the natural world and repurposing man-made objects that had outlived their usefulness. For several years in the ‘8o’s his home was warmed daily by multiple solar panels of black painted drink cans fronted with recycled wood framed storm windows which lined the south exterior walls of the house. All winter on sunny days, hot air drifted through the adjacent windows customized with doors and latches. Much of his wood furniture was built or repurposed by him; a walnut TV console is a stereo cabinet. A school kindergarten student table refinished and outfitted with tall legs is perfect for the kitchen; bookcases, an armoire, end tables, and desks were all designed for the family’s living. Outside Terry imagined and created a park-like back yard with multiple visually appealing native stone retaining walls which divert rainwater during gully-washing rainstorms. The varietal perennial plantings in the borders provide privacy and invite contemplation. No chemicals have ever been used to control critter habitats. Sharing the crop with friends, he harvested the yield from cherry and apple trees and made jams and pies. Terry loved to laugh, socialize with, and assist extended family and friends when he was needed. He leaves behind his wife Pat of 57 years; two adult children, Guy and Amy; a grandson, Jake; two sisters, Sandy and Dee and their families; an aunt and uncle; two brothers-in-law and their families; nieces, a nephew, cousins; and many longtime friends who have been important in his family life and supportive of him during these last two years. Because of Covid-19 there will be no service. Friends and family are invited to remember Terry with gifts sent to either The Land Institute (a nonprofit developing sustainable agriculture systems) 2440 E. Water Fall Road, Salina, Kansas 67401 (landinstitute.org) or Washburn’s Mabee Library addressed to The Washburn Foundation, 1729 MacVicar Avenue, Topeka, KS 66604.