Dr. Armand Singer

Professor Emeritus, Department of Romance Languages, West Virginia University

Armand Singer grew up in Detroit, MI, from which he departed without much regret. He enrolled tentatively at the University of California at Berkeley, and actually stayed there from Monday to Friday in late August. A telegram from Amhurst College telling him that he was accepted put him on a train back east, PDQ. He graduated from there with majors in French and Paleontology in 1935. He then went to Duke University, MA 1939 in French and PhD 1944 ditto. He started to teach French and Spanish at WVU in 1940, finally becoming Emeritus Professor of Romance Languages in 1980. He chaired the program for the humanities from 1963 to 1973, and way back, did a stint teaching mathematics and English during WWII to the Army Air Force students. An avid mountain-scrambler and outdoor lover, he spent two summers as a fire-lookout at Grand Teton National Park. A world traveler, he has done all the states, all the provinces of Canada, most countries of the world, along with landing at the North Pole and visiting the South Pole. Among his hundred or so mountains climbed, he is most out of breath doing a pass in Himalayas at over 19,000 feet and base-camps on both side of Mt. Everest, a tad lower (those date from some years ago; nowadays nothing much higher than twelve or so). On a more serious side, he has written over twenty books on comparative literature, philately, and mountaineering, plus some two hundred articles on just about anything anybody would accept. He is an avid photographer, carpenter, and stamp collector, to the point of bankruptcy.