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 Guaraní, 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 Guaraní-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 https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bellinghamherald/obituary.aspx?n=shaw-nicholas-gynan&pid=197021201&fhid=9055. There is also a place for you to share your memories of Shaw. 

Gifts in Shaw’s honor may be made to the Shaw Gynan Memorial Scholarship here: www.vikingfunder.com/shawgynan

 

Shaw Gynan poses with Dr. Ernesto Luis López Almada of the Universidad Nacional de Itapúa and the Universidad Católica de Encarnación after a talk they gave at Western, January 2019.