[Brown Deer]

The University of Hawaii was one of the first to offer the instruction. The basic Russian class was taught that year by one of the two Russian Language instructors on staff, Ella Wiswell or Isabelle Tripianky. The teachers were similar in both background and teaching style. Wiswell was a Russian emigre and talented linguist who for a while had been the only University of Hawaii Russian Language faculty member. Tripianky was also a Russian emigre, who like Wiswell had studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. The class was held in old Hawaii Hall, and numbered about two dozen students in all, many filled with the dewy eyed idealism of American Cold Warriors who hoped to work as intelligence analysts for the CIA.

[little jeremiah]

In 1960, thirty thousand college students were enrolled in Russian Language courses across the United States. The University of Hawaii was one of the first to offer the instruction.

Ah, so I assume this means that the U of HI did offer a course in Russian in 1960, then. Now if only a list of students could be unearthed.

[Fred Nerks]

Well, THAT information comes as a surprise, it certainly wasn’t available when we searched for it high and low duriing the two long threads...iirc. Many thanks.

[Seizethecarp]

http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/departments/russian/?arc_ewp

Ella Wiswell Papers

Founder of the Russian language program at the University of Hawaii, where she taught from 1951 to 1968.