SU to hold memorial service for anthropology professor
Syracuse University will host a memorial service for Professor Michael Freedman Saturday at 11 a.m. in Hendricks Chapel.
Freedman, 68, was an associate professor of anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2007 and died Nov. 13, 2008. Freedman began teaching at SU in 1967 and had planned to go on sabbatical this semester – his first in his 41 years at SU.
Professors in the department said he was known for asking his students, ‘How do you make it filmable?’ He strived to make anthropology about real people – how they lived, ate, worked and spent their time.
He was teaching a case studies course on cultural diversity and a political anthropology class during the fall semester.
Justin Worst, a junior anthropology and history major, took three classes with Freedman during the last two years. He said it was Freedman’s entertaining sense of humor that always stood out to him.
‘He was a really good professor, and I enjoyed going to his classes,’ Worst said. ‘He made the subject matter as interesting as he could.’
Freedman was a large contributor to a project focusing on children’s health and was concerned about the differential access to health care by class and race, professors said.
‘He seemed like he really enjoyed teaching,’ Worst said. ‘And when he talked about a subject matter, he presented it really well to all of the students.’
