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15
A
rthur Lachlan Reed was the grand-
son of IC’s founder, Alexander
MacLachlan and served as Board
Member from 1965 until 2002. He then be-
came Trustee Emeritus and often travelled
to Beirut to take part in founder’s day.
He was half way through writing his
autobiography when he passed away last
November after a brief illness. He was 91.
Upon his death, the Reed family published
his writings.
Lach Reed, as he was lovingly known,
lived through an amazing time in history
when the Ottoman Empire was on the verge
of crumbling. His story takes us from his
birth and life at IC in Turkey to his educa-
tion in the US, enrollment in the navy and
his marriage to Martha Sweatt.
The following are excerpts from his book,
Lucky Lach.
Mother was my guiding light. She taught
me numbers and letters and then to read
and write. When I was three, she bundled
me up warmly and walked me a quarter of
a mile from our house on the campus of
International College at Kizilcullu of Par-
adiso, Turkey, to my kindergarten sessions
in a classroom under the school’s library.
The two-story library was the third largest
building on the campus after MacLachlan
Hall and the gymnasium.
My parents were teachers at Interna-
tional College, which had recently moved
from Izmir, or ancient Smyrna, to Kizil-
cullu. My mother, Rosalind MacLachlan
Reed, taught music and French. My father,
Cass Arthur Reed, taught English and Phi-
losophy. He was also the college dean. They
met at IC in 1914 and married on May 12,
1916. Ten months later, on March 22, 1917,
I was born.
…Grandfather (AlexanderMacLachlan)
emphasized training boys in character,
competence, and commitment through
Scouting. He sponsored the first Scouting
organization in Turkey, applying what Lord
Robert Baden-Powell had initiated in early
twentieth century in England.
As a good Scot,
Papouli
(“Grandfather”
in Greek) loved golf. In the mid-1920’s he
brought the sport to Turkey with a nine-
hole course on campus. I was often his cad-
dy and honored to be so. I made his tees
from dirt and spittle.
The first electricity generating plant in
Turkey took shape at International College
as well. It came to pass despite religious and
government objection, thanks to Papouli’s
energetic creativity and in-
genious diplomacy. Then the
machinery was installed in
IC’s basement, he invited lo-
cal secular and re-
ligious authorities,
from the governor
on down, to see
how God’s pur-
pose provide light
and hear for his
people was mani-
fested.
Grandfa-
ther’s justification
for his innovation
was approved and
admired, validat-
ing his Scottish pa-
nache. The plant was just one of his many
efforts to bring Ottoman Turkey up to
speed in the modern world of the twentieth
century.
Always the keen sports lover, Papouli
early on organized a field day of running,
jumping, and throwing for students, which
the unaccustomed Turkish leadership
found fascinating. So much so, in fact, that
the governor declared a Governor’s Sports
Day. Soon afterwards the lonian Games
were established and athleticism became
popular. In 1896 the first Olympic Games
in Athens entrenched sports in the accept-
ed and popular culture.
… IC was thus forced to explore options
for another location-perhaps Bulgaria, Jor-
dan, Egypt, Syria, or Lebanon. Lebanon’s
relatively uncontrolled education attracted
IC. Dr. Bayard Dodge, Father’s classmate at
Union Theological Seminary, urged an as-
sociation with the American University of
Beirut in Lebanon, of which he was presi-
dent from 1923 to 1948.
Lucky Lach is available at the LMC library
Rockefeller Hall in Ras Beirut.
Lucky Lach
“Mr International College”
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