A History of Anatolia College: 1933–1950 (review)

A History of Anatolia College: 1933–1950 cannot be classified as history. The book lacks the bibliography, footnotes, and scholarly detachment that one would expect from a serious historical account. Also, a major stumbling block for research purposes is that the author scatters dates randomly throughout, rendering the exact timing of most events unclear. The title should read: My Life at Anatolia College, 1933–1950 since the narrative is more accurately categorized as a memoir with the purpose of recording the life of Alice Riggs (1885–1983) and her missionary husband and Congregationalist minister Ernest Riggs, president of Anatolia College, during the period after the institution had moved from Asia Minor to Thessaloniki, Greece. Also, because it is a memoir, the reader may become fatigued by personal details crammed into this oversized book of 301 pages and disappointed that the author does not introduce any subject matter that would alter our view of the period. However, keeping in mind that good history can often emerge from shards of memory, there is more than one reason to enjoy this honest account. First of all, Riggs is a fine stylist with a flair for the telling example and evocative detail. As a witness to major events in recent Greek history—the ravages created by the Italian invasion in 1940, the German occupation, the Greek civil war, and the widespread devastation in the post World War II period—she documents with pathos and accuracy the sociological traumas of the time.

Anatolia College was founded in 1886 as an outgrowth of a Congregationalist seminary in Constantinople dedicated to educating Greek and Armenian youth in Merzifon, Turkey. Its charter, granted by Massachusetts in 1894, had given it the right to grant any degree given by other universities in that state, opening the way for its graduates to go on to further education and positions in American universities. Expelled by the Turks in 1921, the college moved to Thessaloniki and today comprises Anatolia Elementary School, Anatolia College (high school), and the American College of Thessaloniki (undergraduate and MBA program), which is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges

When Anatolia College arrived in Greece, however, it had been diminished to a struggling refugee school with a score or so of boys, many of them born outside the country. To make matters worse, many of the students were Armenian and did not possess Greek citizenship. According to Riggs, the problem at hand was to fit the school into the Greek educational system as a gymnasium so that its graduates would be entitled to the state certificate for entrance into Greek or other European universities. English was the language of instruction except for religion, history, and geography, which the government required to be taught in Greek. Like all other foreign schools in Greece (and there were many), Anatolia was required to follow the regulations of the Ministry of Religion and Education. A member of the Greek faculty was appointed Co-Director so that a Greek citizen could be held legally responsible. Always sensitive to the needs of the host country, the College held as a primary goal the development of capable leaders for Greece. Immediately, the Riggses set about forming warm relations with the Greek community, especially with such charismatic leaders as the Metropolitan Bishop Gennadius, who became a faithful supporter. As testimony to how deeply the College respected the Greek Orthodox religion, it is fitting to note that Bishop Gennadius's nephew attended the school and the bishop himself lent a hand in establishing an Orthodox church on campus in Macedonia Hall.

Riggs' story begins in 1933, when she and her husband Ernest arrived in Thessaloniki, he to assume the presidency of Anatolia College a decade after "the refugee college," as it was dubbed, had settled into its temporary quarters in the Charilaou section of the city. The girls' school, called the Parthenagogeio, situated a mile apart from the boys' quarters, was granted a permit by the Greek...