Drawing on Thomas Kuhn's concept of "disciplinary matrix" and Max Weber's discussion of charisma, I discuss anthropologist Franz Boas and folklorist Alan Dundes as charismatic disciplinary leaders. From archival research for Boas and interviews for Dundes, I draw out the components of what Elsie Clews Parsons called "the professional family," and, through the words of Boas's and Dundes's students, I add life to these two portraits.