Gillespie, Beryl

Beryl Clemetsen Gillespie was born in Evanston Illinois on June 18, 1938, the daughter of Erling A. Clemetsen and Florence Clemetsen. Her father owned a wood working plant in Chicago, and she grew up in the small community of Long Grove, Illinois. She received her B.A. at Cornell University in 1960 and her M.A. in Anthropology at the University of Iowa in 1969. Beryl Gillespie was a research associate of northern anthropologist Dr. June Helm for several years, conducting ethnographic fieldwork with Dene consultants in Detah, Behchoko (Rae), Deline (Fort Franklin), and Tulita (Fort Norman) between 1968 and 1981, as well as archival research. Beryl's M.A. thesis was an ethnohistory of the Yellowknives Dene, and she continued graduate studies at the University of Iowa Anthropology department for several years. She contributed to several anthropological texts, including the Handbook of North American Indians, Subarctic volume. She was also a consultant for the Indian Brotherhood from 1973-1975 and the Berger Commission in 1976. In 1981, Beryl Gillespie participated in the project to build the mooseskin boat currently on display at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Shortly thereafter she retired from academia. Beryl was first married to Dr. Robert A. Gillespie in 1961, later marrying Eugene S. Rave in the late 1970s. She died in Iowa City, Iowa, on September 22, 2002.