Ens. Barbara Wilson Shuey, M.A., Alpha

 

Born in Berkeley, California in 1915, Barbara Shuey completed her B.A. (1936) and M.A. (1939) in French at the University of California, Berkeley. While at UC-Berkeley, Ms. Shuey was a member of Le Cercle Français, served as President of the Alpha chapter of Pi delta Phi in 1937, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She also completed a General Secondary Teaching Certificated in 1937. She served as a teaching assistant in French from 1939-1943 before attending The United States Navy Japanese Language School at the University of Colorado. Ms. Shuey commented, "As for my admission to the Japanese Language School, there was the desire to contribute to the War effort, plus the irresistible lure of new language study." (The Interpreter) Following graduation from the Language School in 1944, Ms. Shuey was commissioned an Ensign, USNR in the WAVES and was assigned to Washington D.C. She returned to teach at Berkeley after the War in 1947, then taught English, French and Spanish at the AEP School in Tokyo, Japan from 1947-1948. In 1950, Ms. Shuey enrolled in French courses at the Sorbonne while serving as a teacher for the US Army in Paris until 1954. She next worked as an assistante culturelle for the residence unit of the University of Paris from 1955-1962 before teaching English at the École Militaire from 1962 through the 1990s. During her retirement in Paris, she welcomed visits from many former exWAVES. Ms. Shuey passed away in Paris in 2001.

 

Pi Delta Phi would like to thank The US Navy Japanese/Oriental Languages School Archive Project located at the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries for their permission to use information from their article "Barbara Shuey: WAVE & Professeur Parisienne" The Interpreter 93A (November 15, 2005): 1.