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George Leoni Chesnut (1918 - 2007)

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
SamD
Triglot
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, French
Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 1 of 5
27 April 2007 at 1:02pm | IP Logged 
Here is part of an obituary that appeared in this morning's (Cleveland, Ohio USA) Plain Dealer:

"George Leoni Chesnut, a spy by day and a translator of Biblical Greek by night, died April 13 of pneumonia at Virginia Hospital Center in suburban Arlington County, Va. He was 89.

A translator of more than 50 languages, both ancient and modern, he used his linguistic skills at the National Security Agency for more than 30 years as a civilian director of the agency's analytic section. He also taught Spanish part time at George Washington University.

After work, on weekends and in retirement, he translated children's poetry from Chinese to Spanish and English; compiled Serbian and Afghan Pashto dictionaries; and translated a French movie script into English and biblical texts into Dinka, the language of southern Sudan. He considered his work with biblical Greek to be something of a divine calling and conducted seminars on the ancient language for area churches...

Chesnut was born in Waco, Texas, and grew up in Dallas. He enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin at 15 and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Spanish and German in four years. He wrote his thesis on 20th-century Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset.

He also studied linguistics at the University of Chicago and was working on his doctorate at the University of Michigan when pending war prompted him to take a position with the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. His job was to monitor German radio transmissions to South America in Spanish and Portuguese."

Edited by Fasulye on 19 December 2010 at 5:47pm

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polyglossia
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 Message 2 of 5
16 December 2010 at 4:45pm | IP Logged 
nice post!!! I go and look if there's sthg about him on wiki... would be great, thought, to get some insights of how he mastered these languages...
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Nguyen
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 Message 3 of 5
17 December 2010 at 4:59am | IP Logged 
It seems tragic that I cannot find any information on this remarkable man.
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polyglossia
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 Message 4 of 5
17 December 2010 at 4:48pm | IP Logged 
nothing found on Wiki !!!!!!! too bad !!!
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Fasulye
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fasulyespolyglotblog
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 Message 5 of 5
19 December 2010 at 5:48pm | IP Logged 
There is an article about Chesnut in the Washington Post, here is the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04 /25/AR2007042502878.html

Fasulye


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