William Maples: A Brief Summary

During his college years William worked many odd jobs, among his many jobs, William worked at the Hythin Manor funeral home, where he did whatever was required, including painting flag poles. More common however, were high speed ambulance chases to chaotic accident scenes where William witnessed death and dying situations. He saw his first corpse during his first night on the job, and he attended autopsies, beginning when he was 18 years old. After taking a required advanced physical anthropology, he fell in love with human bones and decided to make it his career. William abandoned his English major and switched to anthropology a semester before graduating. William received his Masters degree in 1962, and chose to serve as a manager of the Derajani Primate Research station in Kenya. He initiated studies in Africa towards his doctoral degree which he received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1967.
Doctor Maples began his teaching career at western Michigan University in 1968. …show more content…
Kelley and Lowell Levine were asked by United States Army’s to form a commission to evaluate the Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu, HI (CILHI) which examines the remains of military personnel. Maples role was a senior forensic anthropologist-consultant for 12 years. He examine a many case files recommended for identification. He not only reviewed the files of U.S. personnel killed in South East Asia, but all the case files of World War II and Korean Conflict identifications, as well as the files for mongoloid remains returned to their countries of origin. He enjoyed debating casework and case files with the assigned anthropologist. Dr. Maples believed that a fresh outlook and free debate would make every identification more reliable and