Established by students of Ray Wood, in his honor to benefit the Department of Anthropology. W. Raymond Wood was the premier scholar in his areas of expertise. One says several areas because he was a person whose contributions have been important to several intellectual disciplines. Since coming to MU in 1963, Ray established himself as the pre-eminent archaeologist and ethnohistorian of the Great Plains and Midwest U.S. and as a foremost innovator of truly integrative investigation in archaeological science. Along with his own publications, the numerous professionals he trained constitute a legacy of active investigation into the ethnohistory and prehistory of the Great Plains. Wood's own projects and publications have been groundbreaking in their design and execution. The scholarly productivity and the quality of this effort were astounding. He was the elected editor of "American Antiquity", the most prestigious general journal in his field, and of "The Plains Anthropologist", the premier journal for his regional interest, and he served as editor on a host of boards and for several book series. His research was funded by more than $1,000,000 in highly competitive external grants and contracts. Wood's career was a model one and one that has received important recognition. He was recipient of the Byler Distinguished Professor Award in 1991 and The Plans Anthropological Society Distinguished Service Award in 1992. His students have endowed this fund in his honor, with gratitude for his help and counsel, and in recognition of his importance to archaeology in general.