May 14, 2004 :: No. 248

Campus Memorial Service May 21 for
Leroy Joesink-Mandeville, Emeritus Professor

Leroy Joesink-Mandeville, emeritus professor of anthropology at Cal State Fullerton, died May 8 of heart failure. He was 69. The recipient of two Fulbright awards, one in 1982 and the second in 1989, the Placentia resident conducted archaeological fieldwork in search of ancient village remains in Honduras.

A memorial service is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday, May 21, in McCarthy Hall, Room 420.

A member of the Cal State Fullerton faculty since 1966 — one year after the Anthropology Department was created — he served as chair from 1979-1982. From 1981 until his death, he directed the Yarumela Archaeological Project under the auspices of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History. He also served as contributing editor of Mesoamerican Archaeology for the Handbook of Latin American Studies, published in 1976 for the Library of Congress. He authored dozens of papers and was widely published in the Journal of New World Archeology.

Joesink-Mandeville earned his bachelor’s degree from California State University, Sacramento, a master’s degree from Mexico City College in Mexico City and Ph.D. from Tulane University in Louisiana.

While conducting field research in Honduras, several anthropology students from Cal State Fullerton accompanied him. He advised upwards of 50 CSUF master’s degree students.

Following his retirement in 1998, he received the CSUF Anthropology Department’s Anthropological Vision Award for his commitment to students and his wide-ranging interests. He will be remembered as a gentle teacher who lectured on a variety of topics, including archeology, military history, ship-building and medieval castles, as well as the Olmec, Mayan, Toltec and Aztec civilizations.

Joesink-Mandeville is survived by his wife, Sylvia.