Introduction to the "Adventuring with Anatolia College"
web page (5/20/95)
Anatolia College is nowadays a prestigious private high school
located in the outskirts of Thessaloniki, Greece; many of its
students continue their studies in the U.S., and several of
its graduates have distinguished themselves both in Greece and
abroad. During its first thirty years (in Merzifon, Turkey)
it used to be more like a two-year college, attracting primarily
Christian students from Asia Minor and elsewhere; after its
forced post-WWI relocation to Greece, it gradually changed from
a college serving young Anatolian refugees to the elitist high
school it is today (reflecting a certain transformation of Greek
society, one might add).
Dr. George E. White arrived at the Merzifon campus, together
with his wife, Esther Robbins White, in November 1890, after
three years as a pastor at the Congregational Church in
Waverly, Iowa, and following graduation from the Chicago
Theological Seminary (1887) and Grinnell College (1882).
He was acting president from 1902 to 1905 and president from
1913 to 1933, that is, during the college's most turbulent
period. After his retirement in 1933, he did record his
overseas experience, and Anatolia College's first fifty years
(1886-1936), in the book "Adventuring With Anatolia College",
published in 1940 by the Herald-Register Publishing Company
(Grinnell, Iowa).
I have no ties to Anatolia College, but I happen to be a
colleague of Dr. White's grandson, James Burling (we both
teach Mathematics at the State University of New York,
College at Oswego); Professor Burling inherited a copy of
Dr. White's book when his mother passed away in 1994, and
he gave me a chance to look at it. I found this rare book
to be very interesting and rather captivating, and decided
to share 52 passages from it (strictly following their order
of appearance in the book, pp. 15-154) with Usenet surfers,
beginning the postings on 1/23/95 and ending on 5/22/95;
selecting those passages over others, almost as interesting,
was not easy, but I did find the time to do that while
vacationing in Horta, Portugal (January 1995). At some point,
Eleftherios Gkioulekas, a 1992 graduate of Anatolia College
and junior at the California Institute of Technology, offered
to save the postings on WWW, and I gladly accepted his offer;
we split the postings into three periods, Ottoman (1890-1908),
Neoturkish (1908-1921) and Greek (1923-1933), and I have also
contributed an "introductory" section ,
offering an intimate
look at Dr. White's feelings about his mission and views of
the Near East. Passages 1-19 and 20-36, representing the first
two periods (before and after the Young Turk revolution, and
while the college was still in Turkey) were crossposted on
soc.culture.greek and soc.culture.turkish, while passages 37-52
were posted only on soc.culture.greek, "observing" the end of
Greek and Armenian presence in Asia Minor; the whole operation
was carried out under Professor Burling's full approvement.
Each of the 52 passages is largely independent of the others,
but all those "fascinating snippets of history" (as a fellow
netter called them) put together look like a movie, covering a
number of significant historical events and providing insights
into worlds of the past, always through the ups and downs of
a Christian educational institution in a turbulent environment;
the protagonist of that "movie" is no other than Dr. White, of
course: his "adventure", in a world so different from the one
where he grew up, was certainly much more than what the average
Christian missionary would have anticipated. Most people should
find at least some of the passages appealing to them, especially
those interested in History, Ethnography, Education and Religion.
The preparation of these WWW pages, a significant time investment
on my part, does not in any way imply total agreement with the
views expressed in Dr. White's book--or even full blessing of
Anatolia College's mission, for that matter. People interested in
using this material are free to do so without my permission, but
I would love to hear from them. Please address technical (home
page) questions to Eleftherios Gkioulekas, lf@ugcs.caltech.edu,
and all other questions to me, baloglou@panix.com and/or
baloglou@oswego.oswego.edu.
George Baloglou -- (Tenured) Assistant Professor of Mathematics,
State University of New York, College at Oswego, NY 13126, USA
** sometimes my opinions contradict those of my employer **
*************************************************************************************
Addendum (2/2/98): Eleftherios Gkioulekas did indeed prepare the web page
mentioned above and hosted it for a year or more in his account at Caltech;
I am very grateful for the assistance he provided back then. As he has
graduated by now, and I have at long last built a home page, the
"Adventuring with Anatolia College" web page is now hosted here at SUNY
Oswego, and all questions or comments should be addressed to me at
baloglou@oswego.edu.
Disclaimer (2/2/98): The creation and maintenance of this page does not in
any way imply full and unquestionable endorsement of Anatolia College's
mission either by myself or by my employer; likewise, this page provides
only a "benign" glimpse at a turbulent period and region, hopefully
encouraging the reader to take a further look at the pertinent
bibliography .
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Anatolia College"