W. Judge Obituary

Durango, CO - W. James "Jim" Judge, an archaeologist and professor emeritus at Fort Lewis College, passed away at his home in Durango on December 1, 2024, at the age of 90.

Born in Dillon, Montana on November 29, 1934, Jim grew up in Glacier National Park and in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. During his childhood, Jim's father was a park ranger in Glacier and later chief ranger at what was then the Grand Teton National Forest. After graduating as the only member of his eighth-grade class in Moose, Jim left for New Hampshire to attend Phillips Exeter Academy on a scholarship. After high school, Jim returned to Montana and worked out of Missoula as a smokejumper, parachuting into wildfires. He then trained to be a pilot, serving for four years as a Marine Corps aviator, flying planes and helicopters from aircraft carriers while stationed in Japan. After leaving the service, Jim got a bachelor's degree in political science, spent two years working in Ecuador for a U.S. government-administered farmers' assistance program, and then earned a doctorate in anthropology from the University of New Mexico.

Jim's doctoral thesis, which he completed back at UNM after a stint teaching at Colorado State University and excavating a buffalo-jump site near Fort Collins, won the UNM Popejoy Dissertation Prize in 1970. As a professor at UNM, Jim ran a Mogollon dig in Tijeras Canyon east of Albuquerque. While continuing his professorship, Jim went on to become chief research archaeologist, and then director of the Chaco Project, at Chaco Culture National Historical Park for the National Park Service and UNM. Jim spent ten years at Chaco investigating the ancient Anasazi civilization. His research included studies into how climate change and drought may have accounted for the abrupt and total departure of the Anasazi, the uncovering of a network of broad roads linking major Chacoan pueblos with remote outlier settlements, and the discovery that a spiral chiseled by the Anasazi into the face of a boulder near the summit of Fajada Butte is a solstice marker.

He later directed Southern Methodist University's summer campus and archaeology program in Taos, New Mexico, before joining Fort Lewis College in 1990 as a professor and director of the Archaeology Field School. Jim's engaging teaching style earned him both the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Alice Admire Outstanding Teaching Award.

Jim highly valued archaeological preservation and nature conservation. He served on the national board of directors of the Archaeological Conservancy and the National Center for Preservation Technology. As an early adopter of high-tech archaeological research methods, he also worked with the Center for Digital Antiquity. Having contributed numerous publications to the field, Jim leaves behind a lasting legacy in Southwestern archaeology.

He and his wife Bliss Bruen shared not only a love of nature and the outdoors, but also a drive to create positive change through engagement in their Durango community, by whom he will be deeply missed. Jim will be remembered in the hearts of his colleagues, students, and friends for his passion for archaeology, his dedication to education, his warm personality, and his generous and sometimes mischievous sense of humor.

He is survived by his brother Ned, his children Jay, Shana, and Mike, his stepsons David and Sam Gilford, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, February 22, 2025 at Fort Lewis College. Details are available at pp.events/jimjudge or by emailing [email protected].