The Morning Cometh: 45 Years with Anatolia College Supplemented by Carl Compton’s UNRRA Letters to his Wife Ruth Carl C. Compton © The Board of Trustees of Anatolia College 2008. All Rights Reserved. ISBN: 978-960-98293-04 Carl C. Compton The Morning Cometh: 45 Years with Anatolia College Supplemented by Carl Compton’s UNRRA Letters to his Wife Ruth Compilation Editors: William R. Compton, Deborah Brown Kazazis, and Serge Hadji-Mihaloglou Publisher: Lucy Braggiotti Graphic Designer: Marina Sotiropoulou Maps: Dr. Katerina Boura (Illustrations: Regional Map of Greece and Turkey, 7, 34, and 36) Printed September 2008 in Athens, Greece (2,000 copies) The present volume is a compilation of several works. Part I covers reflections by and on Carl Compton, which with one exception have been published elsewhere separately as indicated in those sections. Part II is a republication of the original volume The Morning Cometh: 45 Years with Anatolia College (New Rochelle, NY: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1986) edited by John O. Iatrides and William R. Compton © Trustees of Anatolia College 1986. Part III is an album of photographs and illustrations on Carl Compton and his times compiled especially for this edition. Part IV is a condensed version of the work entitled Letters of Carl C. Compton to his Wife Ruth, While Working as Director of UNRRA Operations in Thessaloniki, Greece (August 1944 – September 1945): An eye- witness report of personal life and relief work in and around war-devastated Thessaloniki, right after the liberation of the city (Thessaloniki, March 2002) edited by William R. Compton, Manos O. Iatridis, and John O. Iatrides. © William R. Compton. William R. Compton edited the condensed version of the Letters for the present edition. Other copyrighted works are republished by kind permission of their owners. They include Carl Compton’s heirs for his Grinnell College commencement address, archived at Grinnell’s Library and appearing here as Carl Compton at 68, Grinnell College for the republication from The Grinnellian as Carl Compton at 25, the photographs of Carl Compton with his basketball team (Ill.12), a YMCA service society meeting (Ill.13), and Carl Compton receiving the LL.D. degree (Ill.93), and Williams College for the photograph of the Obelisk (Ill.2). The Armenian American poster and President Woodrow Wilson’s appeal text (Ill.32), the League of Nations’ map (Ill. 37), the poster of the Greek wounded (1ll.52), the photograph of Gen. Georgios Tsolakoglou at Anatolia College (Ill.53), the reproduction of E. McKnight Kauffer’s poster from the Univ. of Minnesota Greece Fights On (Ill.54), the Stalin/Evzone and EAM/Justice posters (Ills. 55&56), and the UNRRA photograph (Ill.58) are believed to be in the public domain. Reasonable efforts have been made to trace and credit the copyright owners, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the compilation editors will be glad to hear from them. Chorigi: Serge and Yanna Hadji-Mihaloglou The Evolution of Anatolia College Anatolia College evolved out of the reorganized Merzifon (Marsovan) Seminary in 1886. Its origins may be traced back to the “Haystack Meeting” at Williams College in 1806 and to Bebek Seminary, founded in Constantinople by Cyrus Hamlin in 1840. The Seminary portion of the School moved inland to Marsovan in 1862, while the liberal arts division remained in Constantinople and became Robert College (and eventually, the modern- day Bogazici University). Anatolia College itself was founded in 1886 and chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1894. Following the forced closure of the Marsovan campus by the Turkish government in 1921, the School relocated 800 miles due west to Thessaloniki in 1924. Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos had encouraged then-President George E. White to re-open the School there in order to serve the city’s increased educational needs resulting from the massive influx of Asia Minor refugees. Contents Contents 9 Acknowledgements 11 Foreword by Richard L. Jackson 15 Anatolia Anthem: Morning Cometh 18 PART I: REFLECTIONS Carl Compton at 68 23 Carl Compton at 25 31 William R. Compton 38 Everett W. Stephens 45 William W. McGrew 48 John O. Iatrides 51 PART II: MEMOIRS Editors’ Note 59 Foreword 61 Memoirs 63 I. At Anatolia College in Turkey: 1913-15 63 II. Russian Interlude: 1917-19 73 III. Return to Turkey: 1920-22 88 IV. With the Near East Relief: 1922-24 99 V. Anatolia College Moves to Greece 115 VI. In Washington, D.C.: 1943-44 121 VII. With UNRRA in Greece: 1944-45 124 10 Contents VIII. Postwar Years at Anatolia College: 1946-58 138 IX. In Retirement 148 X. Epilogue 151 PART III: ALBUM Images of Carl Compton and His Times 153 PART IV: LETTERS Preface 207 Background to the Letters 208 UNRRA Letters to Ruth 209 I. En Route to Thessaloniki 209 II. Thessaloniki and Macedonia 211 III. “On My Way Home” 240 APPENDICES Appendix A: Anatolia College Chronology 1806-2008 243 Appendix B: Anatolians and Grinnellians 247 Appendix C: Carl C. Compton’s 1946 Commencement Address 250 Appendix D: Honors Awarded to Carl C. Compton 254 Appendix E: Covers of the first Editions of the Memoirs and Letters 256 Notes 261 Illustrations 267 Index 273 Acknowledgements Anatolia sets life challenges and expects its alumni to serve the common good – as they are able and in any way they see fit. In large part, this institutional culture was fostered by Carl and Ruth Compton, who dedicated their lives to the School. In celebrating Anatolia’s Centennial in 1986, the Board of Trustees arranged for the publication of Carl’s Memoirs, which he was persuaded to write for this occasion by Everett Stephens, former Chair of the Board and pre-WWII teacher. They were edited and annotated with scholarly care in a handsome vol- ume by Professor John O. Iatrides ’50, son of Carl’s colleague and our former teacher Orestes Iatrides, as well as by Bill Compton, Carl and Ruth’s son and Anatolia teacher in the 1950s. The Memoirs were published under the title The Morning Cometh: 45 Years with Anatolia College (New Rochelle, NY: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1986). Our Armenian brothers and sisters generously sponsored a Greek translation with a moving introduction on the Compton legend by former President Bill McGrew. The translation was titled •ËÌÂÚÒÓÂÈ ... 45 ¯ÚfiÓÈ· Ì ÙÔ ∫ÔϤÁÈÔ ∞Ó·- ÙfiÏÈ· (Thessaloniki: Armenian Cultural Association Hamazkian, 1997). In 2002, Bill Compton, John’s brother, Manos Iatridis ’46, and John edited and informally published in a limited edition Carl’s letters to Ruth as Letters of Carl C. Compton to his Wife Ruth, While Working as Director of UNRRA Opera- tions in Thessaloniki, Greece. These letters cover Carl’s service at the United Na- tions Relief and Rehabilitation Administration right after WWII, a period dur- ing which Ruth was delayed from joining him. All three of these publications re- cently ran out of print. As expected, a phalanx of Anatolians stepped forward to ensure that Carl and Ruth’s lessons of community service and leadership by inspiration and example continue to be transmitted. A couple of years ago, President Richard Jackson, 12 Acknowledgements in the course of one of the many briefings he provides on the School, mentioned to my wife and muse, Yanna, and myself that the Memoirs were about to go out of print. Yanna instantly volunteered us to republish them. Dick Jackson, in ad- dition to offering continuing encouragement, contributed the new Foreword. It provides perspective on Anatolia’s evolution since the original 1986 edition and emphasizes Carl’s contributions to building not only buildings, but character. Dick Jackson and my fellow Trustee Angelos Billis ’47, former Vice-President of the Alumni Association and former President of the Friends’ Association, suggested that we add Carl’s letters, of which I was previously unaware. Grin- nell College, Carl and Ruth’s alma mater, provided materials and publications hitherto unknown to Anatolia. Trustee Anestis Logothetis ’52, Grinnell ’55, of- fered invaluable assistance in our communications with Grinnell College, and Grinnell Professor Gerald Lalonde carried out extensive research in compiling a section of Appendix B. Dr. Phil Holland, the High School’s English Chair, and Ifigeneia Sougaraki, our Scholarships Director, filled in on the Grinnell affilia- tion, from which Anatolia continues to benefit. We believe that more of our alumni have gone on to Grinnell for undergraduate study on scholarships than to any other college in the U.S. Phil also updated Anatolia’s Chronology, which had originally been compiled by Everett Stephens and his wife Mary for their history of the School also written for the Centennial, Survival Against All Odds (New Rochelle, NY: Caratzas, 1986). John Iatrides assisted, once again, by con- tributing an original scholarly bibliographical note on the turbulent times the Comptons had lived through. Angelos Papaioannou ’69, Trustee and former President of the Thessaloniki Alumni Association, Rea Samara ’72, Anatolia’s PR Director, Karen Bohrer, ACT’s Bissell Library Director, and her assistant Liza Vachtsevanou all assisted greatly in locating and scanning School photographs. Karen also brought in and consolidated the School photographs from Boston to aid us and future re- searchers. We found UNRRA photographs at the US Library of Congress and were able to copy posters from various Armenian American sources to which Colgate University Professor Peter Balakian kindly referred us. Greek posters of the WWII and Civil War period came from Spyros Karachristou’s Greek Posters (Athens: 3rd ed., Kedros 2003). Yannis Megas ’64, who among his many other accomplishments has published several books on Thessaloniki, and Angelos Pa- paioannou helped us identify School photographs. Rea Samara gathered additional materials, aided cheerfully by our PR assis- tants Athina Rousidou ’97 and Lena Katsarika ACT ’05.