Editing Gregory Bateson (section)

==Personal life==
From 1936 until 1950, he was married to American cultural anthropologist [[Margaret Mead]].<ref>[[NNDB]], [http://www.nndb.com/people/169/000100866/ Gregory Bateson], Soylent Communications, 2007.</ref> He applied his knowledge to the war effort before moving to the United States.<ref name="Britannica">[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] (2007). "Gregory Bateson". Retrieved from [https://web.archive.org/web/20060413134325/http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9356738/Gregory-Bateson Britannica Concise], 5 August 2007</ref> Bateson and Mead had a daughter, [[Mary Catherine Bateson]] (1939–2021), who also became an anthropologist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marycatherinebateson.com |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130128164446/http://www.marycatherinebateson.com/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=28 January 2013 |title=Mary Catherine Bateson |publisher=Mary Catherine Bateson |access-date=27 July 2013}}</ref> Bateson separated from Mead in 1947, and they were divorced in 1950.<ref name="Mead letters">''To Cherish the Life of the World: Selected Letters of Margaret Mead''. Margaret M. Caffey and Patricia A. Francis, eds. With foreword by Mary Catherine Bateson. New York. [[Basic Books]]. 2006.</ref> In 1951, he married Elizabeth "Betty" Sumner, the daughter of the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] [[Bishop of Oregon]], [[Walter Taylor Sumner]]. They had a son, John Sumner Bateson (1951–2015), as well as twins who died shortly after birth in 1953.  Bateson and Sumner were divorced in 1957, after which Bateson was married a third time, to therapist and social worker Lois Cammack (born 1928), in 1961.  They had one daughter, Nora Bateson (born 1969).<ref name="Mead letters"/>

Bateson was a lifelong atheist, as his family had been for several generations.<ref>{{cite book |title=Understanding Gregory Bateson: mind, beauty, and the sacred earth |year=2008 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=9780791474525|page=29 |author=Noel G. Charlton |quote=This was to be the last large-scale work of lifelong atheist Bateson, seeking to understand the meaning of the sacred.}}</ref> He was a member of [[William Irwin Thompson]]'s esoteric [[Lindisfarne Association]].

Bateson died on July 4, 1980, at age 76, in the guest house of the [[San Francisco Zen Center]].<ref>[http://www.wholeearth.com/issue/2035/article/298/gregory.bateson.old.men.ought.to.be.explorers, 'Gregory Bateson: Old Men Ought to be Explorers'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417180448/http://www.wholeearth.com/issue/2035/article/298/gregory.bateson.old.men.ought.to.be.explorers, |date=17 April 2021 }}, [[Stephen Nachmanovitch]], ''[[CoEvolution Quarterly]]'', Fall 1982</ref>
The 2014 novel ''Euphoria'' by [[Lily King]] is a fictionalized account of Bateson's relationships with Mead and [[Reo Fortune]] in pre-WWII New Guinea.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Eakin|first1=Emily|title=Going Native: 'Euphoria,' by Lily King|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/books/review/euphoria-by-lily-king.html|access-date=29 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=6 June 2014}}</ref>