In Memoriam: Shaw Gynan
On Oct. 28, Western lost an important member of our campus community, Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Linguistics Shaw Gynan. Shaw came to Western in 1986 as a professor of Hispanic Linguistics. He was a sociolinguist and his work on bilingualism and language policy is widely recognized, and he became the preeminent scholar of Guaran铆, a language of Paraguay.
After 30 years of teaching Spanish and linguistics, he retired at the end of the 2017-2018 academic year, but he maintained an active scholarly agenda in retirement, summarizing his 20 years of research on Paraguayan Guaran铆-Spanish bilingual education. Shaw was an engaging and beloved teacher of Spanish, a stalwart supporter of Linguistics at Western since its inception, and a model of a teacher-scholar that Western is known for. His good humor, his knowledge of linguistics and of languages, and his kindness and generosity will be sorely missed.
Read his obituary here . There is also a place for you to share your memories of Shaw.
Gifts in Shaw鈥檚 honor may be made to the Shaw Gynan Memorial Scholarship here:
