George Dearborn Spindler was a leading figure in 20th-century anthropology and regarded as the founder of the anthropology of education.[1][2] He edited a very large series of short monographs, turning nearly every significant ethnographic text of the 20th century into a shorter work accessible to the public and to anthropology students everywhere.[citation needed] He was one of the first to teach courses on the anthropology of American culture (culture of the United States).[citation needed] Nearly all of his publications and activities were in collaboration with his wife, Louise.[3][4]
Spindler was originally trained as a psychologist, but departed from traditional psychological methods to do participant-observation with the Menominee.[1]
He was at one time the editor of American Anthropologist.[5] He died on July 1, 2014, at the age of 94 (Turan, 2014[3])