Archaeologist Dr. Alex Kirkish died December 17, 2023 in San Diego, CA. Born in San Francisco, California in 1946, he became an avid long-board surfer during high school in the Monterey area.

With a young family at his side, he caught the archaeology bug while attending University of California, Santa Barbara, working on Burton Mound among other sites, under the direction of Dr. Claude Warren, and receiving his BA in anthropology.

He worked in archaeology labs at Arizona State University, went on numerous geology field trips (just as plate tectonics were coming to the fore), and later attended University of California, Riverside, where he obtained his MA degree in anthropology (specialization archaeology). During these years he actively worked with local Native Americans in protection of cultural sites.

Before obtaining professional work as County Archaeologist for Ventura, California, he helped support his family as a plumber, saying later “It’s all earth science.” There, he continued developing deep relationships with the regional Native American communities, which became a lifelong commitment. Eventually he began working with the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado, returning to his beloved home state in the late 1970s, and began working on major projects in Cultural Resource Management over much of Southern California.

During most of the 1980s, when paying jobs in archaeology became scarce, Alex obtained his California State Contractors license and got his own plumbing business up and running.

By the late 80s he resumed his wide and varied career in Cultural Resource Management, working for the Department of the Interior, and later for the United States Air Force. He held both a Standard Teaching Credential and a California Community College Credential. He loved teaching classes in the schoolroom as well as in the field, and greatly enjoyed demonstrating and teaching flintknapping.

Eventually Alex worked as archaeologist for the California Department of Transportation in Southern California.

His long fascination with the various beads found at coastal and inland Native American sites led him to pursue his doctorate in the field from the University of Leicester.

His thesis “Bead Exchange Among the Historic Kumeyaay Indians” examined the dramatic change in bead types found at Kumeyaay sites during the historic period, linking it to demographic disruption and examining connections with the revitalist Chinigichinish cult that may have been a reaction to this disruption. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Leicester on July 10th, 2013.

In his "retirement," Alex was a frequently sought consultant owing to his deep expertise with beads.

A dedicated father and husband, occasionally impatient, but just as impatient to shrug it off with an easy laugh, he was always active around the house and next to his beloved cats, he loved the garden the most. We miss the annuals that he planted and the beautiful wildflowers. He loved nature, but he was most at home in the desert, enjoying its quiet beauty.

He is survived by his wife Christina (Kit) and his son Jandro. We are bereft in so many ways: his colleagues and collaborators have lost a vast and hard-won store of expert knowledge. His friends and family miss much more of course – the pleasure of his company, his friendship, and the wildflowers.