Carleton College
Class of '67
John Hyslop
(1945 - 1993)

John in 1990

     John Hyslop, that generous, lively, entreprising, scholarly native of Fergus Falls, died in New York City, July 23rd, 1993.   In the twenty-five years after we graduated from Carleton, he had enriched my life and that of my family with loyal friendship, an infectious sense of humor, the intense curiosity that nourished his scholarship, a down-to-earth sense of life’s little absurdities and an open attitude to its challenges.  John shared his inquiring mind as readily as his hearty laughter.
 
     After Carleton, a new life beckoned in New York, at Columbia, in Latin American history and, alas, in the shadow of the draft for the Vietnam War.  John faced it all in a spirit of adventurous enterprise, always communicating an intense feeling for life’s  possibilities.  Three years in the Peace Corps led him to a vocation that would become the passion of his life: the Inca Empire and Andean archeology.   Relishing the experience of research in his new field, he made Lima his base in South America.  From aerial photography to high altitude travel on his motorcycle, John was always keen for research beyond the library.  After completing his Ph.D. at Columbia, he published and lectured in English and Spanish, taught briefly at the New School for Social Research and at Columbia and eventually joined the research staff of the American Museum of Natural History and the Institute of Andean Archeology.   Among many articles and research reports, one can cite two books that now are classics in Andean archeology: Inca Road Systems (1984), Inca Settlement Planning (1990).
 
     The ‘Uncle John’ that my children remember was not the renowned archeologist, but the fun-loving uncle.  He would arrive at Christmas or on birthdays laden with what he called the latest ‘gizmos’—a Walkman, a battery-operated racing car, or one of those early electronic games.  The children responded to John’s spontaneous enthusiasm, his playful sense of humor, his zest for life, his fascination with technology.

     It was a privilege to accompany John on life’s last journey and to hear him say, near the end,  “I’ve been the architect of my own life.”  A few months after his death, we gathered in John’s laboratory/study at the American Museum of Natural History to celebrate his life, surrounded by his publications, his photographs, and the Andean pottery that he knew so well.  

    I remember him vividly and with much gratitude.


    Yani Sinanoglou
    London, September 29th 2006

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