Personal Biography
- President Shumway
- Carolyn Shumway
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Eric Brandon Shumway grew up in St. John's, Arizona. His parents are James Carroll and Merle Kartchner Shumway.
President Shumway attended Brigham Young University on a basketball scholarship (1957-1959), served a mission to Tonga (1959-1962), married Carolyn Merrill in June 1963, and graduated with a B.A. and M.A.in English Literature and Language (1964,1966) from Brigham Young University.
From 1966-1970 Eric taught English at the Church College of Hawaii, concurrently trained U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Tongan language (1967-1968). He completed a Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of Virginia (1973). He served as Academic Vice President at BYU-Hawaii (1980-1986; 1990-1994); as acting president of Polynesian Cultural Center (1991), and became president of Brigham Young University Hawaii in 1994.
Church and community service include being Bishop of Hauula 2nd Ward (1968-1970), the first President of BYU-Hawaii Stake (1977-1986), President of the Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission (1986-1989), and President of the Laie Community Association (1990-1991), and currently serves as Area Authority Seventy for Hawaii and California. He and Carolyn have seven children and sixteen grandchildren.
President Shumway's professional contributions have concentrated largely in books, articles, and video documentaries on Tongan language and culture.