Rudolph Edward Schirmer Jr.

Rudolph Edward Schirmer Jr. (June 18, 1919 – Nov 19, 2000) was a composer, lyricist, poet, and the former chairman of the Board of G. Schirmer Music Inc., an American classical music publishing company. In World War II, he worked in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service during the war in a unit called the Ritchie Boys, which was a unit that consisted of German-speaking personnel for roles in counterintelligence in Europe, translating key information from German prisoners of war (POW), and related services. Starting in 1949, Schirmer was a prolific song writer for over 20 years. He occasionally used poetry by notable poets or books by notable authors as the lyrics for songs. In 1968, he wrote Hymn to the Americas (Himno a las Americas in Spanish) which was performed by the Washington National Symphony at the Fourth Inter-American Music Festival in 1968. Early life Rudolph Schirmer was the son of singer Ann Swinburne Munroe and Rudolph Edward Schirmer Sr., the previous publisher and president of G. Schirmer. His grandfather was Gustav Schirmer the founder of the G. Schirmer corporation. Rudolph E. Schirmer Jr. originally attended Princeton University. He later left Princeton during