S tini, W illiam

Abstract

William Stini (B.B.A., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1960; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1969), an authority on human health and aging, had interests in the multifaceted role of nutrition in human evolution. Stini was Professor, University of Arizona (Tucson), serving as head of the Department of Anthropology (1980–89) and becoming involved with programs in community medicine, public health, and gerontology, as well as nutritional sciences. He was instrumental in planning a longitudinal study of bone mineral density, body mass, and health of populations in Sun City, Arizona. An important finding is that remodeling of the radial shaft results in a decrease in cortical bone that is more pronounced in women than in men. Stini interpreted these results in the light of calcium metabolism, noting that chronic conditions such as (postmenopausal) osteoporosis might represent “antagonistic pleiotropies.” A two‐term fellow of Linacre College, Oxford (1985), Stini also consulted with the National Cancer Institute and joined a subcommittee of the Arizona Governor's Advisory Council on Aging. Stini was physical anthropology editor for the American Anthropologist (1978–82), editor‐in‐chief of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1983–89), and president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (1989–91).