Grover Sanders Krantz (November 5, 1931 – February 14, 2002) was an American anthropologist and cryptozoologist; he was one of few scientists not only to research Bigfoot, but also to express his belief in the animal's existence. Throughout his professional career, Krantz authored more than 60 academic articles and 10 books on human evolution, and conducted field research in Europe, China, and Java. He was a member of Mensa and Intertel, high-IQ societies. Outside of Krantz's formal studies in evolutionary anthropology and primatology, his cryptozoological research on Bigfoot drew heavy criticism and accusations of "fringe science" from his colleagues, costing him research grants and promotions, and delaying his tenure at the university. Further, his articles on the subject were rejected by peer-reviewed scholarly journals. However, Krantz was tenacious in his work and was often drawn to controversial subjects, such as the Kennewick Man remains, arguing for their preservation and study. He has been described as having been the "only scientist" and "lone professional" to seriously consider Bigfoot in his time, in a field largely dominated by amateur naturalists. Early life and education Krantz was born in Salt Lake City in 1931 to Carl Victor Emmanuel Krantz and Esther Maria (née Sanders) Krantz. His parents were devout Latter Day Saints often referred to as Mormons, and while Krantz tried to follow the basic Christian philosophy of behaviour and morality, he was not active in the religion. He was raised in Rockford, Illinois until the age of 10, when his family relocated back to Utah. He attended the University of Utah for a year beginning in 1949 before joining the Air National Guard, where he served as a desert survival instructor at Clovis, New Mexico from 1951 to 1952. Krantz then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in 1955 and a Master's degree in 1958. With the submission of his doctoral dissertation, titled The Origins of Man, Krantz obtained his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Minnesota in 1971. Career In the early 1960s, Krantz worked as a technician at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, California before acquiring a full-time teaching position at Washington State University, where he taught from 1968 until his retirement in 1998. He was a popular professor despite giving notoriously difficult exams, and often ate lunch with students and talked about anthropology, unified field