Daniel Ellis Moerman was born on July 21, 1941, in Patterson, New Jersey, to Henry Ellis Moerman and Doris Lucille Marty. He died peacefully at home on Jan. 9.

Dan is survived by his wife, Claudine Farrand; brothers, Paul Moerman and Mark Moerman; daughter, Jennifer Moerman Sontchi; son-in-law, Michael Sontchi; niece, Andrea Moerman; stepchildren, Frederic Farrand and Anne Farrand; and grandchildren, Allison Farrand Bultman, Spencer Farrand, and Owen Daniel Sontchi, who knew him affectionately as Grandpa Dan.

Dan married Claudine Brickmann Farrand on Jan. 6, 1990. He was steadfastly and demonstrably devoted to her. For years, without fail, he arranged for fresh flowers to be delivered to her on the 19th of every month, her birthday.

Dan was a medical anthropologist and a leading scholar in Native American ethnobotany and the study of the meaning response in medicine. He earned his AB (1963), MA (1965), and Ph.D. (1974) in anthropology from the University of Michigan. His academic career included teaching appointments at Antioch College and UM-Dearborn, where he rose from instructor to professor of anthropology and was appointed the William E. Stirton Professor of Anthropology in 1994.

In 1991, he became the first faculty member on the Dearborn campus to receive U-M’s Distinguished Faculty Governance Award. He was a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and served as editor-in-chief of Economic Botany from 2004-08, as well as president of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology from 2006-08.

Dan’s life’s work reshaped his field. Beginning in the mid-1970s, he created the Native American Ethnobotany database, which grew from fewer than 5,000 entries to more than 44,000 documented plant uses across 291 Native American groups. This work culminated in “Native American Ethnobotany” (1998), widely regarded as the definitive reference in the field and the recipient of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries’ Annual Literature Award. 

His later book, “Meaning, Medicine, and the ‘Placebo Effect’” (2002), challenged the limits of conventional biomedical thinking and argued persuasively that meaning and context are central to healing, whether or not a treatment is pharmacologically active.

Outside his professional life, Dan was an artist in the broadest sense. He appreciated beauty and craft wherever he found them. He visited art and natural history museums, collected Native American ceramics and jewelry. He explored photography, embroidery, drawing, painting and fly-tying. 

His true artistic home, however, was woodworking. After retirement, he designed and built a full size wood shop in his basement and taught himself to create finely crafted furniture, toys, boxes, ornaments, and turned vessels inlaid with stone and marquetry. He gave these works away freely to friends and family, tangible evidence of his patience, precision and generosity.

Earlier in life, Dan was an avid outdoorsman who loved fishing, camping and canoeing — especially with his beloved younger brother Tom Moerman’s family. He loved animals, especially birds, dogs and cats, and supported efforts to protect and care for chimpanzees. He was fascinated by the natural world and treated it with respect and awe.

Dan read constantly and loved research. He adopted computers early, seeing them as tools for inquiry as well as creativity. His armchair side table was perpetually buried under books, scholarly articles, photo albums, crossword puzzles and the latest issue of The New Yorker.

Dan leaves behind a legacy of intellectual rigor, personal integrity, infectious joy, deep love for his family, and a trail of wood shavings from his workshop. His work changed how people understand healing and his life enriched the people who knew him.

— Submitted by the Moerman family

Tags:

• Obituaries
• UM-Dearborn