SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

next 53-1/2 sheets include the text of these fragments with English translation in pencil of several portions of these texts. The remainder of sheets are blank except for sheets 87-89. That part contains a very interesting notes from a study from the University of Nebraska on the GI Lingo during W.W.II. This includes 100 terms with their definitions. 5. Spiral notebook, having 109 wide-ruled, 8-1/2x11 inch sheets, with a light blue glossy cover. The first 83 sheets contain a Sahidic-English glossary with reference to paragraph numbers of one of the grammar references that RMS was using. The glossary is written on the back side of the sheet. Sheets 1, 51-53, and 84-109 are blank. All writing is in black ink. This items is considerably newer than Items 3 & 4 above. The cover of this college-type 5-subject notebook, has the label of "Herald Square" and a printed price of 88¢. 6. Bound Yale University notebook, having 100 wide-ruled white pages, with a very light blue cover and a dark green vinyl spine. Sheets 3-10 & 12-15 contain translation from the Sahidic Jeremiah Michigan fragments, with the text and translation on separate lines followed by a blank line. Sheets 16-41 contain grammatical notes with translated examples from the grammars of Till, Stern, and Plumley. Sheets 89-98 contain text and translation from Chapter 26 of Sahidic Matthew, drawn form the readings published by Steindorff in #1 above. Sheets 1-2, 42-88, and 99-100 are blank. There is a store label with a price of $4.50 on the side of the spine. These prices on #5 and #6 can possibly give us a clue on the date of these works. 7. Four letters from Prof. William Hoyt Worrell of the University of Michigan to RMS. These single page correspondences are related to Item #2 above which RMS has sent to Prof. Worrell for review. They were typewritten on letterhead of the Department of Oriental Languages of the university, and were signed by Prof. Worrell. The dates indicated on them are March 30, 1943; April 5, 1943; April 20, 1943; and January 28, 1994, respectively. The first three were sent to an address

in Belleville, Illinois and the last one to a military address in Scott Field, Illinois. These four letters were in response to three letters sent by RMS to Prof. Worrell, with the April 5th, and April 20th letters being in response to RMS sending of the item described in #2 above. Who is RMS: The work before us in this archive represents remarkable achievements of an unknown lay scholar. Remarkable enough to warrant investigation of who has produced it. What we do know is primarily through the items that he left and are described above. The following are what can be gathered from the archive: 1. His knowledge of German must have had an ethnic reason for it. Illinois has always been home to a large German American population. From his family name of 'Smith', it was either originally converted from Schmidt or his mother was of German origin. The former is the more probable. 2. He was a citizen of Belleville, Illinois. (Items 7-1, -2, -3) 3. He probably only completed High School and was working in a clerical or blue-collar profession. (Item 7-1) 4. He was either drafted or volunteered into the US Army in second half of 1943. His possible role in W.W.II is unknown but he would have been very valuable in the European theater with his extensive knowledge of German. (Item 7-4) 5. Throughout his life he had access to several Coptic language books in German from his marginal notes in the items above. Till's Dialekgrammatik, which the Society acquired from the same dealer also belong to RMS personal library.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter 6. His interests also included Ancient Egyptian which is probably the reason why he was introduced to Coptic. (Items 3, 4, 7-4)

7. Item 6 may indicate a later academic association with Yale, which has its own fine tradition in the field. In any case his family did not share his

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