The founder and President of Alborz College of Teheran was Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan. From the time of the Jordans’ appointment to work in Persia, Lafayette College was interested in the American School for Boys in Teheran and took an active part in it. The Brainerd Society which was the college Y.M.C.A. organization, was the center of this interest. In 1899 W.C. Isset (1901) wrote to Jordan on behalf of the Brainerd Society asking for information about the school and for suggestions as to how Lafayette College would cooperate. The students and faculty sent a contribution that year and continued to do so in almost every year until the college in Iran was closed in 1940. During all these years men of Lafayette knew the institution in Teheran as “Lafayette in Persia.”
This image is the inside page of the pamphlet called "Lafayette College is Creating Leaders for Persia."
A lively interest was renewed when the Jordans returned to Easton in 1906 and Lafayette became the center of Dr. Jordan’s promotional work in that furlough. A strong “General Committee on the Lafayette Education Work in Persia” was appointed from among the alumni scattered over a wide area. The object was to secure from Lafayette men, students and graduated, a continuing support of the work in Persia and at the same time have Lafayette men appointed to the high school and college faculty in Persia supported, if possible, by Lafayette men in America. In 1923, the Trustees of Lafayette formally adopted “The American College in Teheran” as Lafayette’s special interest abroad. Shortly thereafter Dr. MacCracken, President of Lafayette, became President of the Board of Trustees of the college in Persia. [This introduction is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of Alborz College of Teheran and Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan Founder and President by Arthur Clifton Boyce. The full document is available under source documents.]
Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan
“One thing Dr. Jordan has to his credit out here is the belief on the part of many Persians that he is here to help and not to oppose things. For that reason he has an entrée into the offices and councils at times of the leading political men in Persia. He is looked upon as the head of every American school, girls or boys, in Persia, although of course he is not. But no decisions of a political nature are taken with reference to any school without first consulting him on the subject. It is fortunately so, for in the present crisis he has been able to smooth out more rough spots than anyone else could do. Unfortunately, he is severely criticized by fellow missionaries and yet when they want anything from the Government for school or church no committee to approach the government is complete without him.” Letter from Walter A. Groves to his mother on November 4, 1927.
In the course of the years the following Lafayette men were on the faculty of the American College of Teheran for shorter or longer terms:
Name Lafayette Class Role at American College of Teheran
Samuel Martin Jordan 1895 President & Professor of History and Social Sciences
Arthur Clifton Boyce 1907 Vice President, Professor of Education and Psychology
Frederick L. Bird 1913 Professor of English
William Norris Wysham 1913 Professor of Religion and Sacred Literature
Ralph Cooper Hutchison 1918 Dean and Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Walter Alexander Groves 1919 Dean and Professor of Philosophy and Ethics
James H. Hill 1928 Instructor in Business
George W. Brainerd 1920 Instructor in Biology
S. Leroy Rambo 1930 Instructor in Physical Education
William C. McNeill 1931 Instructor in Physics and Chemistry
Edward S. Kennedy 1932 Instructor in Mathematics
Arthus C. Haverly 1936 Instructor in English
American College of Teheran - Graduation - June 1929