Wallace M. Erwin ’42

Wallace Erwin, teacher and Arabist, died Aug. 4, 2011.

Wally grew up in Louisville, Ky., and prepared for Princeton at the Georgia Military Academy. At Princeton he roomed with Bob Lowry, joined Dial Lodge, and majored in SPIA. In the summer of 1941 a grant from Princeton allowed Wally to travel to Colombia. This travel ignited his interest in foreign languages, a passion that determined his life course.

After leaving Princeton in June 1942, Wally joined a Navy program that was designed to teach Japanese to recent college graduates. He emerged from this program as an ensign assigned to translate Japanese documents. His career in the Navy took him to Australia and Japan to document bombing damage done to Japanese installations during the war.

After discharge from the Navy, Wally received a Ph.D. from Georgetown University, where he continued on as a member of the faculty. In 1963 he published A Short Reference Grammar of Iraqi Arabic. He spent his last 15 years at Georgetown as chairman of the Arabic department.

Wally met his wife, Benny, while in the Navy. To her, the class sends its sympathy.