<html><div>>> Charles Francis Hockett of 145 North
Sunset Drive, Ithaca, New York</div>
<div>>>died at</div>
<div>>>the Cayuga Medical Center on November 3, 2000 after a
short illness. He was</div>
<div>>>84.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>Hockett was the fourth child of Homer Carey and Amy
Francisco Hockett. He</div>
<div>>>was</div>
<div>>>born in Columbus, Ohio on January 17, 1916. He was
educated in the public</div>
<div>>>schools of Columbus and Worthington, Ohio and graduated
from the Ohio State</div>
<div>>>University, receiving both the BA (summa cum laude) and
the MA (high</div>
<div>>>distinction in history) in June, 1936. Thereafter he
attended Yale</div>
<div>>>University</div>
<div>>>for three years, with financial aid first from the Social
Science Research</div>
<div>>>Council and then from the American Council of Learned
Societies. He studied</div>
<div>>>under Edward Sapir, George P. Murdock, Leslie Spier, Morris
Swadesh, George</div>
<div>>>L. Trager, and Benjamin J. Whorf, majoring in anthropology
and linguistics.</div>
<div>>>He was awarded the PhD in June, 1939, with a dissertation
based on fieldwork</div>
<div>>>with the Potawatomi Indians of Northern Wisconsin.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>After a summer of fieldwork with the Kickapoo Indians
of Oklahoma, an autumn</div>
<div>>>in Michoacán, Mexico, and two years of
postdoctoral study at the</div>
<div>>>Universities</div>
<div>>>of Chicago and Michigan, the former with Leonard Bloomfield,
Hockett was</div>
<div>>>drafted into the United States Army in February of 1942. On
furlough in</div>
<div>>>April</div>
<div>>>of that year, he married Shirley Orlinoff of Queens, New
York. His basic</div>
<div>>>training in the army was in antiaircraft artillery, followed
by a few months</div>
<div>>>helping to prepare other recruits for Officer Candidate
School. But then he</div>
<div>>>was transferred to Army Service Forces and given duties that
made use of his</div>
<div>>>civilian expertise: in late 1942 he accompanied a shipment
of officers to</div>
<div>>>General Stillwell s headquarters in Bengal, India,
supervising their</div>
<div>>>learning</div>
<div>>>of Chinese while en route. Returning from that
mission, Hockett was</div>
<div>>>stationed</div>
<div>>>for several years in New York City, preparing
language-training materials</div>
<div>>>for</div>
<div>>>the armed forces. He was commissioned second
lieutenant in 1943, and</div>
<div>>>promoted</div>
<div>>>to first lieutenant in 1945. After the surrender of
Japan he was dispatched</div>
<div>>>via the Philippines to Tokyo to help train American
troops in Japanese. In</div>
<div>>>February of 1946 he was separated from the army, with
a terminal-leave</div>
<div>>>promotion to captain. With that rank he was called
back for the summer of</div>
<div>>>1950 to help in the training of officers in foreign
languages at the</div>
<div>>>Praesidio of Monterey, California.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>In 1945, after a summer s work in New York City on
Clarence L. Barnhart s</div>
<div>>>American College Dictionary, Hockett came to Cornell
University as an</div>
<div>>>Assistant Professor of Linguistics in charge of
elementary Chinese. He</div>
<div>>>joined</div>
<div>>>the newly founded Division of Modern Languages under
the directorship of</div>
<div>>>the</div>
<div>>>late J. Milton Cowan. In due time, at Cornell, Hockett was
promoted to</div>
<div>>>Associate Professor, to full Professor, and finally to a
Goldwin Smith</div>
<div>>>Professorship, his rank at the time of retirement in
1982.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>While on the Cornell faculty, Hockett headed a team
preparing a basic</div>
<div>>>pattern</div>
<div>>>for a series of textbooks in English as a second
language. In 1955 he pu</div>
<div>>>blished an elementary textbook of linguistics [A
Course in Modern</div>
<div>>>Linguistics] (with translations into</div>
<div>>>Spanish, Polish, and Chinese) that was the standard in
the field for about</div>
<div>>>twenty years. Hockett regarded his introductory textbook
in anthropology</div>
<div>>>[Man's Place in Nature]</div>
<div>>>(1973) as his best scholarly work even though it was a
commercial</div>
<div>>>failure. He</div>
<div>>>published many technical papers, mostly in
linguistics, and he supervised</div>
<div>>>the</div>
<div>>>work of about 90 graduate students working for an MA
or PhD, who are now</div>
<div>>>teaching at universities all over the world.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>During the fifties, Hockett was on the staff of the
Linguistic Institutes of</div>
<div>>>the Linguistic Society of America at Indiana
University and the</div>
<div>>>University of</div>
<div>>>Michigan. He taught at the Canadian Summer School of
Linguistics in</div>
<div>>>Edmonton,</div>
<div>>>Alberta in 1960. In 1960-1961 he was Carnegie Visiting
Professor of</div>
<div>>>Linguistics at the University of Hawaii. At various
times he gave</div>
<div>>>lectures at</div>
<div>>>Freiburg im Breisgau; in Düsseldorf; twice, at an
interval of thirty years,</div>
<div>>>in Grenoble; in 1972 at the Linguistic Institute held
at the University of</div>
<div>>>Illinois; in 1991 in Denton, Texas, to the Linguistic
Association of the</div>
<div>>>Southwest. For four months in the fall of 1986 Hockett
lectured on</div>
<div>>>linguistics at the Beiping Foreign Studies University.
He was president of</div>
<div>>>the Linguistic Society of America in 1972, president
of the Linguistic</div>
<div>>>Association of Canada and the United States in 1982,
and Distinguished</div>
<div>>>Lecturer of the American Anthropological Association
in 1986. Beginning in</div>
<div>>>1986, he was first Visiting Professor, then Adjunct
Professor of</div>
<div>>>Linguistics,</div>
<div>>>at Rice University in Houston, Texas, an appointment
still in effect at the</div>
<div>>>time of his death.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>Hockett was elected to the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences in 1972 and</div>
<div>>>to the National Academy of Science in 1973.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>Hockett was a well trained musician, playing flute and
piccolo in high</div>
<div>>>school</div>
<div>>>and college, later switching to bass clarinet, which
he played for many</div>
<div>>>years</div>
<div>>>in the Ithaca Concert Band. As a composer, he produced
piano music, songs,</div>
<div>>>several marches, an opera (given two performances by
the Ithaca Opera</div>
<div>>>Association in 1973 at Ithaca College), a concertino
for cello and wind</div>
<div>>>ensemble, and chamber music, the last especially for
combinations including</div>
<div>>>oboe or cello. In April of 2000 a concert of his music
was performed at</div>
<div>>>Ithaca College by his daughter, pianist Alpha Hockett
Walker, and her</div>
<div>>>husband</div>
<div>>>David Weiss, principal oboist of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic Orchestra.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>Hockett is survived by a loving family: his wife
Shirley Hockett, daughter</div>
<div>>>Alpha Hockett Walker and husband David Weiss (now of
Los Angeles), son Asher</div>
<div>>>Orlinoff Hockett and wife Jane McLarty (of Ithaca),
daughter Amy Robin Rose</div>
<div>>>and husband Eddie Sackett (now of Detroit), daughter
Rachel Hockett Youngman</div>
<div>>>and husband Richard Youngman (now of Cambria,
California), and daughter</div>
<div>>>Carey</div>
<div>>>Beth Hockett (now of London, England). There are also
five grandchildren:</div>
<div>>>Rachel s children Charles H. and Annie H. Kee; and Alpha s
children Carly,</div>
<div>>>Luke, and Hannah Walker.</div>
<div>>>A celebration of Hockett s life is planned for the
spring of 2001. Anyone</div>
<div>>>wishing to make a contribution in his memory should
direct it to the School</div>
<div>>>of Music of Ithaca College, which he enthusiastically
supported.</div>
<div>>></div>
<div>>>(Text as it appeared in the Ithaca Journal, 6 November
2000) </div>
<div>>></div>
>
<br>
<font color="#800000">**********************************************************<br>
Salikoko S.
Mufwene
</font><font color="#800080">s-mufwene@uchicago.edu<br>
</font><font color="#800000">University of
Chicago
</font><font color="#800080">773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924<br>
</font><font color="#800000">Department of Linguistics<br>
1010 East 59th Street<br>
Chicago, IL 60637<br>
</font><font color="#000000"><a href="http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html" eudora="autourl">http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html</a><br>
</font><font color="#800000">**********************************************************<br>
</font></html>