Anthropologist Grover Krantz had two wishes for the afterlife — to continue to educate others and to be close to his beloved dogs Clyde, Icky, and Yahoo.
In death as in life
On his passing in 2002, Grover’s wife Diane had his body sent to the University of Tennessee’s famous ‘body farm‘ to be part of their unique decomposition research per his wishes.
“I’ve been a teacher all my life, and I think I might as well be a teacher after I’m dead.”
Once his usefulness there was complete, his skeleton was cleaned and sent on to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Once there, his colleague and museum collections manager Dave Hunt had the skeletons of his beloved Irish wolfhounds tucked away for years, waiting to be reunited with their dad in the afterlife.
Dave and Grover
Grover and his dogs rested quietly in the back catalog until forensic anthropologist Doug Owsley suggested assembling Grover’s skeleton alongside Clyde the wolfhound for display in the museum.
Doug featured the pair in his Written in Bone exhibit which ran from 2009 to 2014.
Grover’s wife Diane has not visited his skeleton at the museum but has considered donating her body to join his after death. That would make them the first couple to be donated and shown together. Truly one of a kind!
