He was the son of James M. Heilman and Rosemary Cypher Heilman, and was born in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1944.
He grew up in Piqua and graduated from Earlham College. He completed graduate work at Indiana University and received his M.A. in anthropology from Kent State University.
Life’s work
Heilman is best known for his work as Curator of Anthropology at the Dayton Museum of Natural History (Boonshoft Museum) and for his more than 20 years of excavation and development work at the “Incinerator Site,” later known as SunWatch Archaeological Park with the Heilman–Kettering Museum.
Credit: Lisa Powell
Credit: Lisa Powell
SunWatch is known for its astronomical alignments and concentric rings of stockades, houses, storage, trash pits, and rings of burial around a central plaza with its astronomically aligned center post, it remains the most extensively excavated Fort Ancient cultural site known.
Credit: Lisa Powell
Credit: Lisa Powell
Under Heilman’s hard work, SunWatch achieved the distinction of National Historic Landmark.
He presided over archeological digs at 12 Ohio and Indiana sites in addition to SunWatch.
Heilman was critical of the commercial dispersal of American Indian art, dinosaur bones and other ancient objects
“If everybody has a piece of the puzzle, nobody has the picture,” he once said.
Heilman was featured in the Dayton Daily News as one of the “City Gems” in 2000 after he announced his plans to retire from the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, where he worked for 31 years.
At the time he was considered to know more about ancient bones and stones and astronomy than anybody else in the Miami Valley.
Personal life
Those who knew Heilman knew of his love for anthropology as well as his many other interests, including collecting items, gardening, animals, nature, and the cultivation of friendships.
Heilman’s whimsical English garden was mentioned in a Dayton Daily News story about the DeWeese Ridgecrest Civic Association Garden Tour in 2018.
“It’s a beautiful acre of madness created with numerous found objects, a multitude of plants and trees, and an arboretum-worthy magnolia,” Ann Schenking, a member of the Garden Tour organizing committee, then told the Dayton Daily News.
Heilman enjoyed sharing his knowledge with others. He would often say “Cheers!” to celebrate your presence or highlight a moment. He valued conversation, connection and the relationships he nurtured over a lifetime.
It was noted that one of his other favorite phrases was “Correct you are!”
He is survived by his sister Myra A. Heilman Strauchen of Park City, Utah; his niece Bradley, her husband Eric, and their daughter Eliza of New York City; several Cypher and McCarty cousins; and his faithful companion Obie, a black standard poodle.
A celebration of life will be announced at a later date, most likely in May. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the SunWatch Endowment, the Dayton Society of Natural History, 2600 DeWeese Parkway, Dayton, OH 45414, or to the charity of one’s choice.
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