A Professor’s Impact: 19 Years Later

“Sometimes teaching has big rewards,” said Vaughn Bryant, professor of anthropology, who was reminded of his impact by a pupil he taught 19 years ago.

After reading about Bryant winning the Fryxell Award from the Society for American Anthropology (SAA), Jennifer Rinker emailed him to say congratulations. She also thanked Bryant for his influence on her education.

In 1988, Rinker was 14 years old when she attended the Gifted and Talented Institute Program held at Texas A&M Galveston, where Bryant taught for five summers. She spent two weeks learning about archaeology by exploring “excavation sites” and reassembling broken “artifacts.” She even won the “best female award” out of 30 students in her camp session.

“Vaughn would quiz me on the various bones of the body and I, at least, always believed he was impressed that I knew them,” Rinker said. “I remember embarrassingly asking if we were going to find Karankawa artifacts, not knowing the staff had peppered the units with things for us to find.”

“She was already quite knowledgeable about anthropology and she still has the clay ‘pot’ that I purposely broke and then asked the students to reassemble for practice,” Bryant said.

Rinker went on to earn two degrees in anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin and worked as an archaeologist for several years before earning a law degree. Now an attorney in Washington, D.C., with the Houston-based firm of Bracewell & Giuliani, Rinker still finds time to devote to her passion by working “pro bono” projects involving cultural heritage or historic preservation.

Meanwhile, Bryant is still having an impact on students’ lives as a professor and administrator at Texas A&M University, as noted with the Fryxell Award. Officials associated with the award commented that “Dr. Bryant’s significance is illustrated through the diversity, breadth and success of his numerous students.”

For the past 36 years, Bryant has taught in the Department of Anthropology where he served as department head, program head, director of the Center for Ecological Archaeology and is currently the director of the Texas A&M Palynology Laboratory.

Bryant earned all his degrees at The University of Texas at Austin. After teaching at Washington State University, he joined Texas A&M University in 1971 and began their anthropology program. He continues to work in anthropology, but is also a leading forensic expert using pollen evidence to catch criminals and prevent terrorism.

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