Paul J. Scheuer

Paul J. Scheuer
Personal details
Born	1915 Heilbronn, Germany
Died	12 January 2003
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	31431249
Rank	Private
Camp Ritchie	Class 26 (3 January – 3 March 1945)
Section	4D
Enlisted	Boston, Massachusetts

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.

Paul J. Scheuer (1915 – 12 January 2003) was a Ritchie Boy (from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 26.

Biography

Paul J. Scheuer was born in 1915 in Heilbronn, Germany. After graduating first in his Realgymnasium class in 1934, Nazi racial laws barred university study. He apprenticed in leather tanneries in Germany and Hungary, where a chemist mentor drew him toward chemistry, then worked briefly in Yugoslavia and England before immigrating to New York in mid-October 1938. He earned a B.S. in chemistry from Northeastern University in April 1943 and began Harvard graduate work under R. B. Woodward.

Army service interrupted his studies. Assigned first to the Chemical Warfare Service, Scheuer became a U.S. citizen while at Edgewood Arsenal, then transferred in January 1945 to Camp Ritchie (Class 26). Flown to Paris days before VE Day, he served about fourteen months as a special agent with Third Army headquarters in Bavaria, including temporary duty at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials, before returning home in 1946.

Under the G.I. Bill Scheuer completed a Harvard Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1950 and joined the University of Hawaiʻi chemistry faculty that year. He built a pioneering marine natural-products research program, directed dozens of graduate students, and retired as professor emeritus in 1985. He died on 12 January 2003.

Research notes

• Nuremberg
• Nazi Millionaires
• Regenerated from Scheuer’s first-person career narrative. Chemistry prizes are postwar academic honors, not Army awards, and are omitted from the awards tuple.

Gallery

• 
• 

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	88
Nara ASN	31431249
Nara Name	SCHEUER PAUL J
Nara State	13
Nara County	25
Nara POE	1306
Nara DOE	250144
Nara Grade Alpha	PVT
Nara Grade Code	8
Nara Branch Alpha	NO
Nara Branch Code	2
Branch	No branch assignment
Nara Term or Enlistment	5
Term of enlistment	Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law
Defer. Date	0
Nara Source	0
Nara Nativity	N1
Nara Year of Birth	15
Nara Race	J
Nara Race Description	White not yet a citizen
Nara Education	7
Nara Civilian Occupation	31
Nara Marital Status	6
Nara Height (inches)	0
Nara Weight (lbs)	1
Class_ASN	31431249
Class_Name	SCHEUER, Paul J.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 1915 — Born in Heilbronn, Germany.
• 1934 — Graduated from the Heilbronn Realgymnasium.
• 1935–1938 — Apprenticed in tanneries in Hungary, Yugoslavia, and England.
• October 1938 — Immigrated to the United States.
• April 1943 — Graduated from Northeastern University with a B.S. in chemistry.
• 1943–1944 — Began Harvard graduate study; Chemical Warfare Service duty.
• January 1945 — Assigned to Camp Ritchie military-intelligence training (Class 26).
• May 1945–June 1946 — Served with Third Army in Bavaria, including temporary duty at Nuremberg.
• 1950 — Received a Harvard Ph.D. and joined the University of Hawaiʻi faculty.
• 1985 — Retired as professor emeritus.
• 12 January 2003 — Died.

Sources

• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook material and live roster vitals for Class 26 / death date
• RB Archive reprint of Paul J. Scheuer’s autobiographical essay in The Chemical Intelligencer (1997)
• Wikipedia: Paul J. Scheuer
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• 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 2019-11-18 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2023-03-02 (1 post)