Ron Scollon (1939-2009) spent his early years as a linguist at the Alaska Native Language Center, where he contributed to the documentation of several Athabascan languages. Scollon received training in Athabascan linguistics from renowned Athabaskanist Li Fang-Kuei, himself a student of Edward Sapir. He went on to become a preeminent linguist in the field of discourse analysis and intercultural communication, serving for many years as Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University.