Robert "Chip" Vincent Jr.
(1945-2007)
by Susan Katzev
first published in the Spring 2008 issue of The INA Quarterly Volume 35, No. 1
Robert “Chip” Vincent Jr.’s time as INA’s president in the years 1988-1994 evokes memories of his playful spirit, and the graciousness with which Chip and his wife Fran hosted INA gatherings at their home. As one director sums it up, “Never did there exist a greater sense of family among the INA staff, faculty, students and spouses than during that time.”
Chip was studying for a career in law when he joined Michael Katzev’s first summer excavating the 300 B.C. Greek shipwreck off Kyrenia, Cyprus in 1968. When a Cypriot torpedo boat hit and swamped the excavation barge, Chip’s University of Pennsylvania thesis expertise in international sea law won a settlement for the dig from the Cypriot government.
After passing the bar in Massachusetts, Chip quit law, and spent seven years on Cyprus with the tight-knit preservation team that helped Dick Steffy reassemble the Kyrenia Ship’s hull. There he met his British Kenya-born bride, Frances Bevan. They married during the turbulent times in the aftermath of the Cyprus war, and together went on to write a book on the adventure!
Chip had already done extraordinary photography in Afghanistan’s Baluchistan during a 7-year Smithsonian survey just before the Russian invasion. In what locals call the “desert of death and hell” he discovered a Zoroastrian fire temple now known as “Quala Vincent”. He went on to participate in over 30 other field seasons in England, Israel, Kenya, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Greece.
In yet another seven-year campaign Chip was part of an international team in Oman that developed the entire infrastructure of the rich coastal province of Musandum. He established an ethnographic museum there to crown their success.
INA would be his and Fran’s next home until he accepted his last great assignment. For 15 years as project director and cultural heritage manager for the American Research Center, he raised and administered funds to preserve antiquities in Egypt. Chip promoted more than 50 different projects encompassing everything from pre-pharonic monuments to 18th-century Cairo neighborhoods. In his last months spent in Maine he finished editing the handsome book Preserving Egypt’s Cultural Heritage, describing these achievements.
Knowing that he might not survive his 1½ year struggle with leukemia, Chip wrote in a summary of his life how grateful he was to live so much of his life overseas “on the edge where adventure was just a four-wheel-drive away.” He wanted to think that his work had given back to the people and cultures who provided him, Fran, and their daughters Susannah and Sarah so much excitement and joy. When the girls asked Fran, “Should we think about scattering Dad’s ashes somewhere?” Fran replied, “Well, my dears, we have our job cut out for us. We will be several years, following your Father’s instructions, scattering his ashes around the world in the places that he loved.”
