Grover Krantz (November 5, 1931 – February 14, 2002) was an anthropology professor at Washington State University and is known as one of the first “Bigfoot academics.” He also had a long relationship with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History because his brother worked there and Krantz worked on the Kennewick Man case, so when he knew he was dying it was a natural choice for him to donate his bones to the museum.

Before Krantz died of pancreatic cancer in 2002, he called David Hunt, the physical anthropology collections manager at the Smithsonian. Krantz told Hunt that he wanted to donate his body to the Anthropology Research Facility (aka the Body Farm) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and then have his bones sent to the Smithsonian. However, much like Bentham, he had an odd request. Krantz wanted his skeleton and the skeleton of his favorite dog, Clyde, to be rearticulated and posed to recreate an old photo. In this picture, Clyde, who died in 1973, is standing on his hind legs with his forelegs on Krantz’s shoulders (pictured here). Clyde was such a large dog that he stood almost as tall as his 6’3” owner.

A few days after Krantz’s death in 2002, his body was sent to the Body Farm where it was used to study human decomposition. In 2003, the skeletal remains of Krantz, Clyde, another two of Krantz’s dogs, and even Krantz’s baby teeth were sent to the Smithsonian. For a few years Krantz’s bones were stored in a green cabinet and used to teach age-related changes in bone. The skeletons of Grover Krantz and his beloved wolfhound were rearticulated, per Krantz’s request, and displayed them as part of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History Written in Bone exhibit that opened in 2009.