Background
Kimball, Solon Toothaker was born on August 12, 1909 in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. Son of Charles Augustus and Matie (Toothaker) Kimball.
Kimball, Solon Toothaker was born on August 12, 1909 in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. Son of Charles Augustus and Matie (Toothaker) Kimball.
He graduated from Kansas State University in 1930, then received a master"s degree and Doctor of Philosophy in social anthropology from Harvard in 1933 and 1936.
Kimball did groundbreaking anthropology work concerning family and community in rural Ireland (with Conrad Arensberg) and on the Navajo reservation in the American Southwest. Over the years, he was on the faculty of a number of universities, including the University of California, Columbia University (GSAS and Teachers College), the University of Alabama, and the University of Florida. While in Alabama in the 1950s, Kimball studied social tension arising from racial segregation and found himself labelled an "academic radical."
Kimball was rewarded for his work with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966.
The American Anthropological Association now administers a Solon T. Kimball Award every other year to an anthropologist that effects change in public policy.
The Kimball Award was initiated by royalties from Applied Anthropology in America (1978), a volume dedicated to Kimball, "who taught that the study of human behavior should be of service to people.".
Fellow American Anthropological Association (nominations committee 1977-1978), Society Applied Anthropology (president 1953), American Association for the Advancement of Science. Member Southern Anthropological Society (president 1979-1980), American Ethnological Society (president 1970-1971), Council on Anthropology and Education, Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Kappa Delta, Sigma Delta Chi, Beta Theta Pi.
Married Hannah Jackson Price, December 24, 1935. Children: Sally Makielski, John Price (deceased).