At 81 years of age and with a distinguished career behind him, Dr. William Bass can certainly rest on some pretty impressive laurels. That is, he could rest if he wanted to. He’d rather not. The longtime Knoxville resident says he doesn’t really feel like he’s retired. It’s more like he’s traded one fulltime job for another – the title of “forensic anthropologist” exchanged for the title of “published author.” Dr. Bass, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, is the founder of the internationally known University of Tennessee Anthropology Research Facility. It’s better known as the “Body Farm.” In addition to co-authoring a series of crime novels that made the New York Times Bestseller list in recent years, he is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications, as well as a critically acclaimed memoir about his career titled “Death's Acre.” “I hate death and mourning,” Dr. Bass says. “I don’t like funerals, either. But I never see a forensic case as a dead body. I see it as a puzzle,” he says. “I don’t see a skull as a dead body. I see it as a clue to what that person was when alive.”

Dr. Bass has been honored as National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Since he officially retired from his work at the University of Tennessee, he has continued as a consultant on cases all across the country. He’s also a keynote speaker who is very much in demand for his fascinating true crime stories. His personal appearances include slides and gory details from cases that have captured headlines nationwide. But don’t look for him to demand star treatment. You are just as likely to see him helping set up the chairs at a speaking engagement as you are to see him signing autographs.

His own Body Farm novels, co-authored with writer Jon Jefferson, are set in the hills of East Tennessee, mixing forensic science with interesting characters for a fascinating storyline. Dr. Bass humbly emphasizes that he only contributes science to the books, and that writing partner Jefferson does the storytelling. It’s a bone of contention for Dr. Bass’s wife, Carol. She says she’s had more than one good-natured argument with Jefferson about the personal life of the books’ main character, who happens to be the charismatic founder of a body farm. “People read the books and they think it’s him (Dr. Bass),” she says. “They want to know which one of his students he kissed!” She says Jefferson tells her he adds the juicy details because “people like to read a good story.” Mrs. Bass counters that it depends on what kind of story you want to tell.

Dr. Bass has been married to his childhood friend for 12 years, after losing his first two wives to cancer. Mrs. Bass says she believes the secret to her husband’s longevity and quality of life is found in his positive attitude. She says he follows the same routine every morning – he eats a bowl of cereal and then reads the paper, and never, ever misses the comics. “When he gets to the comics, you can hear him laughing all over the house,” she says. Among his favorites are Baby Blues, Pearls Before Swine, Mother Goose and Grimm, and Peanuts. A positive attitude isn’t something you’d expect from someone whose career has been so grim in nature. The "Body Farm" is a place where human corpses are left to the elements, and every manner of decay is fully explored—for the sake of science and the cause of justice. “You have to look at the humor of things, even in investigations,” he says.

Dr. Bass has assisted with hundreds of death investigations, from historic burials to homicides to mass disasters. His career became his claim to fame when author Patricia Cornwell used the Body Farm as a setting for her novel of the same name. He also gained notoriety for exhuming remains of J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, a disc jockey-turned-recording artist who died in a 1959 plane crash. It was no doubt a gruesome task, but Dr. Bass was able to enjoy his most rewarding career benefit from the experience: bringing closure and peace to family members. While Dr. Bass still visits the dead at the Body Farm regularly, he’s just as happy visiting with the lively group of students who share his interest in science. While pictures of him in the media usually show him holding a skull or climbing out of a grave, he gets just as much fulfillment from climbing out of bed and taking the dog for a walk.

“Life is fun,” he says. An important observation from a man who has been in Death’s Acre and lived to tell about it.

Published in: Covenant Passport News