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(1946–2026)
Andrew H. Maxwell, “Chip,” a beloved former member of the Department of Anthropology at Montclair State University in New Jersey died of a heart attack on April 6, 2026, in Granville, Ohio, at the age of 80. He is survived by his wife, Marie-Luise (ML) P. Maxwell; his daughter, Alli Maxwell; and stepdaughters Elizabeth and Sara.
Born on January 23, 1946, in Youngstown, Ohio, Chip was raised in Paterson, New Jersey, where his father worked as a dental surgeon. He attended Ohio University in Athens and majored in anthropology. “He wasn’t an establishment person,” noted ML. As an undergraduate, Chip was a member of the student-led civil rights organization Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Drafted during the Vietnam War, Chip refused to fight, and as a conscientious objector served a two-year stint as an Army medic in Germany, treating the causalities of war. He departed the Army with a stellar record of service and deepened opposition to the war.
In the 1970s, Chip returned to school, pursuing a doctorate in anthropology at Boston University under the mentorship of urban anthropologist Anthony Leeds. Chip loved the rich intellectual life of BU and was a part of a group of students and colleagues who enjoyed Thursday night gatherings at Leeds’s home in Dedham, MA. Chip’s dissertation research explored the implementation of an urban renewal program in Boston’s South End in order to link community dynamics to larger political and economic systems.
Chip taught at SUNY Binghamton and Skidmore before joining the Montclair anthropology department in 1992 as an urban anthropologist with a specialty in systems-level analysis. He wrote critiques of urban poverty scholarship that blamed Black communities for their own marginalization, and later, focusing on motorcyclists in postindustrial urban US, considered how community could form around movement rather than fixed neighborhood space. Among his many accomplishments, in response to a department need, he developed an enhanced anthropology theory course that strengthened the overall anthropology major at Montclair. One of his former students, AJ Faas, remembered that Chip “pressed us to engage with our readings as academics, inviting intellectual curiosity and honesty.”
Chip loved cars, speed, and motorcycles. He and ML purchased an Ocean Cruiser that they sailed up and down the East Coast, and ultimately to Florida when they retired. Chip was a devoted husband and father, who adored his wife and daughters, and was particularly proud that Alli graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory. Donations in memory of Chip may be made to the Department of Anthropology at Boston University at this link and noting that the donation is in his honor. Condolence may be sent to Marie-Luise Maxwell ([email protected]).
(Katherine McCaffrey)