Description:
Helen Irwin Shuster was born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in 1922. Her father was a prominent figure at New Jersey City University, then known as Jersey City Teacher’s College. With family roots in Indiana, Helen primarily grew up in New Jersey. She had a unique relationship with religion, as her grandmother was a Methodist minister. She discusses the impact that the Great Depression had upon her family and the difficulties some family members faced in finding jobs. She describes her educational experiences and the social and educational connections that existed between Rutgers College and the New Jersey College for Women (NJC). Additionally, she articulates her perspective in regards to the changes that occurred within American society after the onset of World War II, along with her thoughts on President Roosevelt. She graduated from NJC in 1944 with a major in Spanish and minors in English and history. She later lived in New Brunswick and Trenton, then Delaware and Rhode Island, before settling in Arlington, Virginia with her husband, Carl N. Shuster, Jr. Helen passed away at the age of one hundred in 2022.
