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Grover Sanders Krantz
(November 5, 1931 – February 14, 2002) was a professor of physical
anthropology at Washington State University, perhaps most famous to the
general public as one of the few scientists not only to research
Bigfoot, but also to express his belief in the cryptid's existence.
Throughout his professional career, Krantz authored more than 60
academic articles and 10 books on human evolution, and conducted field
research in Europe, China, and Java.
On Valentine's Day 2002,
Krantz died in his Port Angeles, Washington home from pancreatic cancer
after an eight-month battle with the disease. At his request, there was
no funeral. Instead, his body was shipped to the body farm at the
University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, where
scientists study human decay rates to aid in forensic investigations. In
2003, his skeleton arrived at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural
History and was laid to rest in a green cabinet, alongside the bones of
his three favorite Irish Wolfhounds – Clyde, Icky, and Yahoo – as was
his last request.
In 2009, Krantz's skeleton
was painstakingly articulated and, along with the skeleton of one his
dogs, included on display in the Smithsonian's "Written in Bone:
Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake" exhibition at the
National Museum of Natural History. |
