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Michael Z. Salovesh
Michael Z. Salovesh

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News Release

Contact: Tom Parisi, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-3635

December 21, 2005

NIU mourns the death
of Professor Emeritus Michael Salovesh

DeKalb, Ill. — Michael Z. Salovesh, 74, a retired professor of anthropology who spent nearly three decades at Northern Illinois University, died Wednesday, Dec. 7, at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Baltimore, just two days prior to the death of his new bride, Louana M. Lackey.

Salovesh underwent treatment for a type of melanoma three years ago, but the disease resurfaced this past spring, according to a family member. Salovesh and Lackey, a 79-year-old ceramics historian and archaeologist, married in May, and she was later diagnosed with cancer as well. Both had entered the Gilchrist Center in recent months.

Salovesh retired from NIU in 1998 after 28 years at the university but continued to live in DeKalb until earlier this year. He was preceded in death by his first wife of 45 years, Margaret L. “Peggy” Salovesh.

Born May 6, 1931 in Chicago, Salovesh served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. He earned his Ph.D. in 1971 from the University of Chicago. A social anthropologist, he studied social organization and inter-group relations in Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. He also conducted research on Attention Deficit Disorder, having overcome learning disabilities himself, said his son, John Salovesh of DeKalb.

Friends and relatives remember a man of many talents, with an intellectual sense of humor, an innate curiosity about life and a storyteller's gift.

“He was an experiential teacher,” John Salovesh said. “I still bump into his former students who loved his storytelling approach to learning, instead of just rote lecture. He loved teaching and was a man of education to the very end. Even at the hospice and hospital in Baltimore, he invited medical students to come in and ask him questions.”

Michael Salovesh instilled that love of learning in his two sons. “Growing up a lot of kids would go camping or to a ballgame with their dads; we'd go to the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, where my father did his research, or go exploring in Mexico City,” John Salovesh said.

“Mike really was a character—an intelligent man with a wide range of interests,” added NIU Professor Emeritus Susan Montague, who now lives in Las Vegas. Montague was a longtime officemate and close friend of Salovesh.

“He was a very generous man,” Montague said. “For three years while I was commuting between DeKalb and Chicago, his family took me in as a boarder. They were like family to me.”

Salovesh served on the NIU faculty senate. He was a past president of the Central States Anthropological Society and served on the governing boards of the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Latin American Anthropology and the Chicago Anthropological Society. He also was among the founders of the Illinois Society of Latin Americanists.

“He was an extremely capable scholar and was very active in doing ethnographic fieldwork, and he continued his research even after retirement,” Montague said.

“I remember him also being a brilliant one-on-one teacher. A constant stream of students visited his office, where he would sit and talk, often for hours, with each of them.”

Salovesh had a wide range of interests outside the university. He was a talented folk singer and musician who played classical guitar and jazz piano. He was an active volunteer with Meals on Wheels, the DeKalb Noon Lions Club, the DeKalb County Sheriff's Radio Watch and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-affiliated social-justice organization.

“He said he was one of the only Jewish Quakers he knew,” John Salovesh said, adding that his father embraced Quaker values of helpfulness and tolerance.

At NIU, Salovesh also was known as a frequent contributor to the TOMPAINE listserv, an online discussion group for NIU faculty and staff.

“He was just an amazing teacher, and not just in the classroom,” said Irene Rubin, professor emeritus of public administration. “Mike would jump in on TOMPAINE and raise the level of discussions with just one well thought-out post. He personified what the educational community is supposed to be about.”

Survivors include his sons, John Salovesh (Tricia) of DeKalb, Ill., and David Salovesh (Jean DeStefano) of Washington, D.C.; four stepdaughters and 11 grandchildren.

A memorial service is being planned for next spring at the University of Chicago. In memoriam, donations may be sent to the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care, 6601 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21204 or your local hospice.

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