Roudiez, Leon S. (0453890)

Leon S. Roudiez
Personal details
Born	18 November 1917 Bronxville, New York
Died	18 June 2004 Stevensville, Maryland
Nativity	United States
Religion	Catholic
Known for	French literature; Columbia University French department
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Signal Corps
ASN	0453890
Rank	Captain
Rank at Ritchie	First Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 8 (17 May – 16 July 1943)
Section	7A
Specialty	Military intelligence / Counter Intelligence Corps
Unit / division	12th Army Group; Alaska Defense Command
Team	MII 416-G

Teammates

Team — MII 416-G

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Leon S. Roudiez (18 November 1917 – 18 June 2004) was a Ritchie Boy (Camp Ritchie class 8) and later professor emeritus of French at Columbia University, where he headed the French department.

Biography

Leon Samuel Roudiez was born on 18 November 1917 in Bronxville, New York, the son of Colonel Leon S. Roudiez and Lulu Roudiez. After his father retired from the U.S. Army in 1921, the family lived in Germany and France. He graduated from Stanislas College in Paris in 1935, earned a law degree from the University of Paris in 1938, then returned to the United States and completed an M.A. at Columbia University in 1940 (he later earned a Ph.D. there as well).

On 9 December 1940 he enlisted in the G-2 section of the Second Corps Area at Governors Island and served with the Counter Intelligence Corps in New York City until November 1941. He then attended Signal Corps Officer Candidate School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1942. From April 1942 he served with the Alaska Defense Command at Fort Richardson, Dutch Harbor, and Attu Island as signal, cryptographic, postal, and censor officer.

He later instructed at the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland (class 8). In December 1943 he was ordered to the European theater with headquarters in London, lecturing U.S. troops on the coming invasion of France and on the "Baby Blitz," including V-1 and early V-2 attacks. He landed on Omaha Beach about a month after D-Day, took part in the Normandy and Northern France campaigns with 12th Army Group headquarters, and after the liberation of Paris worked there with the Counter Intelligence Corps. He returned to the United States in October 1945, went on terminal leave at Fort Dix on 14 October 1945, and reverted to inactive status on 10 January 1946 as a captain.

After the war he taught French at Columbia University, serving on the graduate faculty until he retired in 1987 as professor emeritus and former head of the French department. He lived in Stevensville, Maryland, and died there on 18 June 2004.

Research notes

• See RG 498 Box 466
• MII 416

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	87
Class_ASN	4538901
Class_Name	ROUDIEZ, Leon S.
match_method	asn_partial_name_exact
row_source	both

Sources

• Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-10-06 (3 posts)
• Wikipedia: Leon Samuel Roudiez