William F. Stinner was born in Allentown, PA, to German immigrants. Much of his research and life reflected that Allentown beginning. Known as Bill throughout his life, Stinner served in the United States Navy in the late 1950s and later moved on to a successful career as a researcher, mentor, and teacher. After completing his undergraduate coursework, Bill married Carol McKewen in 1961; they shared life together for 56 years, until her passing in 2017.
Bill’s academic career began with an AB at Columbia University, followed by MA and PhD degrees at Pennsylvania State University. He came to Utah State University (USU) in 1973 following several terms teaching at Penn State, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the University of Chicago’s Population Institute at the University of the Philippines. He maintained a distinguished career at USU and served as the Director of the USU Population Research Laboratory. Bill was the USU college researcher of the year in 1979 and had many devoted students during his career. Upon his retirement from USU in 2000, he worked for several years at the State of Utah Department of Health.
Over the course of his career, Bill played a central role in demographic and human ecological research nationally and internationally. Beginning in graduate school and continuing throughout his illustrious career, his research contributed significantly to the demographic and ecological literatures. He studied a variety of topics, and examined populations and cultures in Asia, Latin America, and the United States. In many cases, he was among the first to identify issues that subsequently became important lines of demographic inquiry. His first article, published with his mentor, Gordon DeJong in 1969 in Demography, provided significant ecological insights on pushes and pulls for Black migration in the South and became a standard on the subject. His groundbreaking research on parental preferences for sons or daughters, also published in Demography, noted that many parents prefer a balance of female and male children, as opposed to just males. Bill was also among the first to examine the relationship of disability to population factors, and he provided similarly groundbreaking insights in his analyses of population issues in Utah. Indeed, his work on Mormons in Utah provided insights on minority populations throughout the United States and the world. His articles on migration and on the migration turnaround of the 1970s are among the most cited works on the topic. His books, Return Migration and Remittances: Developing a Caribbean Perspective; Sociology of the Life Course with Brian Pitcher; and Community, Society and Migration: Noneconomic Migration in America with Patrick Jobes and John Wardwell, each provided unique insights into community and population issues. His later work on retirement migration also made important contributions. Bill was truly renowned internationally and domestically for his numerous contributions to sociological and human ecological demography.
Bill’s success in preparing grant proposals was essential to the development of the USU Population Research Laboratory (now known as the Yun Kim Population Research Laboratory), and, perhaps more importantly, provided support to many graduate students. In particular, Bill’s role in directing major projects funded by the National Institutes of Health brought national and international attention to the Sociology program at USU. He provided superb leadership to the Population Research Laboratory in times when faculty and financial resources were scant. Further, Bill’s efforts on behalf of graduate students were impressive. He supervised numerous students to successful degree completion. Many achieved their first scholarly publications with Bill Stinner as their mentor. The respect, appreciation, and loyalty shown for him are remarkable. Indeed, in November 2021, upon hearing of Bill’s passing, one student commented, “Dr. Stinner always inspired me to work harder.” Such admiration from students is undoubtedly the most cherished compensation a professor can hope to receive. The knowledge, time, and effort he gave to students are of incalculable worth. The successes of Bill’s students while pursuing their degrees and the successes they have experienced in their careers attest to his contributions as a mentor.
What is less known is that Bill provided invaluable service to the discipline. He played a key role in the establishment of the Population Section of the International Sociological Association and served as one of the first Presidents/Chairs of this now illustrious section of the ISA. He served as acting head of USU’s Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology department (now the Department of Sociology and Anthropology). At conferences and professional meetings, Bill was a delightful companion. He would introduce junior colleagues to nearly everyone who was anyone in an organization, thereby assisting the further development of the careers of these junior colleagues.
Bill has now joined other human ecologists who have recently passed, including Parker Frisbie, Jack Gibbs, Michael Micklin, Hal Winsborough, and Stanley Lieberson. These giants incorporated human ecological perspectives into demographic research, producing important insights. With the rise of survey research and detailed data on individuals, the foundations of human ecology have been incorporated into many areas of demographic and sociological analysis as researchers incorporate place, environment, social organization, and technology into their research.
William F. Stinner was in all respects an outstanding scholar, distinguished researcher, important teacher and mentor, and a beloved husband and uncle. His colleagues and students missed him on his retirement and, with his family, we mourn the loss of his powerful and collaborative intellect, and his friendship.
Submitted by
E. Helen Berry, Utah State University
Dudley Poston, Texas A&M University
Michael B. Toney, Utah State University
Sojung Lim, Utah State University