alter user ENVironment variables without logging them in

Hello. My admin mac is being stubborn. While testing Leopard the login shell was set to NONE on the Leopard Server that I authenticate to as a portable home directory. After realizing that I need to allow the shell for me to use while in the network account I switched it to /bin/bash on the server and rebooted. However, the terminal still recognizes the default shell of /dev/null, rather than the /bin/bash I told it to use. The plist files show the correct setting, I've modified the .account file, i've removed the entire local user library, and a few other things. However, the one thing that I would like to do but do not know how is to set the environmental variable for that user from another user's login. Since I can not get into any shell to set the ENV SHELL I want to login as another admin or root and set it for that user. However, I can not see how to set the ENV for a user other than the one logged in. Has anybody done this or have any leads/ideas of how to modify the ENV SHELL without being able to log in as that user? Thanks. chris