Shirley Saint-Leon

2 May 1934-18 September 2011

SHIRLEY KATHLEEN SAINT-LEON was born and raised in Chicago, summered in Wisconsin and obtained her higher education in Los Angeles. A divorced mother, she worked her way through college by working as a hostess at Chip’s Steakhouse in West Los Angeles and as a secretary at the Unitarian Church in Santa Monica and babysitting, driving a summer camp bus and tutoring.

She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Santa Monica Community College and obtained her Master’s Degree from UCLA in 1968. Her work ethic so impressed the faculty at SMCC that she was hired as full time English teacher for the Fall, 1968 semester. She later taught cinema and directed the college’s cinema program. She retired from teaching in 2005.

Education was her passion. She was as hungry for knowledge as she was skilled in sharing her wisdom. Shirley did not blur the line between the terms “passion” and “hobby.” She loved travel and gourmet cooking, excelled in language, and deeply appreciated cinema, the stage, and literature.

She leaves behind a husband; Gil, two sons; David Hood and Michael Saint-Leon, Gail Oleari, a niece who was more like a sister, dozens of dear friends and thousands of students.

In a consolatory phone call, a former student said, “She lived her convictions.”