John Sanders

John Sanders was born in Springfield, Mo.,on December 18, 1920, the eldest of three children of Jacob Warren and Helen Huggins Sanders. He attended local schools and both Drury College in Springfield and the Kansas City campus of the University of Missouri where he majored in biology. Immediately after graduating in 1942, he joined the Merchant Marine several months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served four years as a seaman and deck officer on oil tankers and freighters carrying fuel, munitions, and other supplies to the British, Russian, and American armies. He was a survivor of the prolonged Battle of the Atlantic, the struggle to keep the sea-lanes open between England, Europe, and North America. After World War II, John attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., where he earned an M.A. in geology and paleontology. In 1948, he began a career as a petroleum geologist, exploring for oil and developing oil fields in both North and South America, in Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. He chose Durango for his retirement in the 1950s when he worked here for the Gulf Oil Corporation. He retired from his last position, in Sumatra, in 1978. He continued to work as a consulting geologist in the Four Corners area for several years. Retirement was marred by the death of his wife Jacklyn Sanders in 1980, after 37 years of marriage. John married Fort Lewis College professor Shaila Van Sickle in 1982, a person who contributed so much to making the last several decades of his life a joyous experience. John’s principal interests, in addition to work and family, were reading and the study of history, anthropology, and archaeology, and in hiking and camping in the mesas and canyons of the Southwest. He was a member of a number of state, regional, and local archaeological and environmental organizations, and was particularly active in the affairs of the San Juan Basic Archaeological Society. Members so much enjoyed the newsletter he wrote for several decades that he was allowed to relinquish the job after more than twenty years. His archaeological friends not only marveled at his extensive knowledge of the areas they visited on numerous field trips but also his energy and stamina. Even into his 80s he seemed less tired than anyone else after a long days’ hike! (He reluctantly gave away his backpack when he turned 90.) In 1998, he received the Ivol Hagar Award from the Colorado Archaeological Society for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of archaeology. When remembering John, his many friends first mention his ability to tell succinct, coherent stories, framed by an inherent logic and giving colorful, telling details about people and places he remembers vividly from his travels and work around the world. John is survived by his wife, Shaila Van Sickle of Durango, his brother Bill Sanders of Kansas City, his son Jim Sanders and Jim’s wife Sabrina Sanders of Moore, Okla., daughters Merrill of San Francisco, Sue of Norman, Okla., Laura and her husband Eric Paul of Grand Junction, three granddaughters, other relatives and many, many friends. He claims to have had a good and happy life, with few regrets. In addition to private memorials for family members, there will be a more public memorial hosted by the San Juan Basic Archaeological Society in the early fall.