Eric B. Shumway

Eric B. Shumway (born 1939) was the president of Brigham Young University–Hawaii (BYU-Hawaii) from 1994 to 2007. After completing his service as university president, he served as president of the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Shumway was born in Holbrook, Arizona.^[1] From 1960 to 1962 he served as a missionary for the LDS Church in Tonga. After his mission, Shumway married Carolyn Merrill, and they are the parents of seven children.

Shumway received bachelors and masters degrees in English from Brigham Young University in 1964 and 1966 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia in 1973. Shumway began his association with BYU-Hawaii in 1966 as an instructor in the English Department.^[2]

Shumway has served in many leadership positions within the LDS Church. In 1968, Shumway became the first bishop of the church's Hauula 2nd Ward. From 1973 to 1977 he served on the high council of the Laie Hawaii Stake.^[2] In 1977, when the first student stake at BYU-Hawaii was organized, Shumway became the stake president.^[3] From 1986 to 1989 Shumway served as president of the Tonga Nukuʻalofa Mission.^[4] From 2004 to 2007, Shumway served as an area seventy in the church's North America West Area, which included Hawaii and California.^[5]

Shumway served as Academic Vice President at BYU-Hawaii immediately prior to his appointment as the university's president.^[6] Shumway had also served on the board of directors of the Polynesian Cultural Center.^[7]

During Shumway's tenure as president of BYU-Hawaii, the school focused on increasing the percentage of students from outside the United States. Among other programs, there were scholarships granted where officials of foreign governments were allowed to help determine who received the scholarship. Thailand was among the countries included in this initiative.^[8]

Shumway edited a book entitled Tongan Saints: Legacy of Faith, a collection of the experiences of various Latter-day Saints in Tonga that was published as part of the celebration of the church's centennial in Tonga.^[9]

Works

• Shumway, Eric B. (1966). The literary relationships of John Gay's Dione to the English pastoral drama: the restoration tragedy, and the eighteenth century pastoral eclogue (MA). Department of English, Brigham Young University. OCLC 367527876. 
• —— (1967). Lessons in Tongan. Honolulu: Peace Corps Training Center, University of Hawaii. OCLC 9090315. 
• —— (1971). Intensive course in Tongan: with numerous supplementary materials, grammatical notes, and glossary. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-87022-757-2. OCLC 162958. 
• —— (1991). Tongan Saints: Legacy of Faith. Laie, Hawaii: Institute for Polynesian Studies, Brigham Young University–Hawaii. ISBN 0-939154-52-8. OCLC 23144746. 

References