William Mulloy - University of Wyoming

University of Wyoming

Even as a junior faculty member of the University of Wyoming, Mulloy distinguished himself as a teacher. George Carr Frison, now an emeritus Professor of Anthropology, recalls that when he came to UW in 1962 as a 37-year-old freshman, except for an occasional visiting lecturer, Mulloy taught all of the courses offered by the university in anthropology.

Apart from Professor Frison, Mulloy's former students at the University of Wyoming include former US Senator from Wyoming, Alan K. Simpson; Charles Love, a geologist on the faculty of Western Wyoming College and a researcher in Rapa Nui Geology and Archaeology; Dr. Dennis J. Stanford, Chair of the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC; and Sergio Rapu Haoa, former director of the anthropological museum on Rapa Nui and the island's first native governor.

During his three-decade academic career in Laramie, Mulloy perennially received the recognition of his students and faculty colleagues. His engaging classroom presence brought him such honors as the Omicron Delta Kappa Award for outstanding teaching. The Wyoming Archaeological Society established the William Mulloy Scholarship in his honor in 1960. In 1964, he was the recipient of the George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award. In 1976, the University of Wyoming awarded him its highest distinction, the LLD degree, honoris causa.

In 1968, Mulloy established the Wyoming Anthropological Museum and served as its curator until his death. His personal collection of modern Rapa Nui folk art now forms part of the University of Wyoming Art Museum.