5 August 2025 (updated 6 August 2025)
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Patricia Maynor Bikai on August 5, 2025. Having earned a PhD in biblical studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, she undertook archaeological fieldwork that stretched from Lebanon, where she worked in the 1970s, to Egypt and Cyprus in the 1980s. From 1991 until 2006, she served as associate director of the American Center of Research and worked with her husband, Pierre Bikai (then director), to advance ACOR’s mission through fundraising, the development of ACOR’s publication program, and archaeological research at Petra and elsewhere in Jordan. She worked on many of the American Center’s most important excavation and conservation projects during that period. Upon their retirement in 2006, she received the Hussein Medal for Distinguished Service, Second Class, from King Abdullah II, and an endowed fellowship in the name of the Bikais was established with ACOR to assist graduate students in archaeology. You can read more about this fellowship and Patricia Bikai on our website. Our deepest condolences to her family and all others who also knew her.