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WINTER
2011
9
could apparently make a full concerto
after listening to a short whistled tune).
And in this very room, MacLachlan loved
to entertain his grandchildren and their
friends. He would take out his golden
pendant watch which he always wore
around his waist. “Do you see the stem
here?”MacLachlan would say, “when I
push the stem the clock would open.The
child who guesses when I’ll push the stem
will get an extra piece of cake.”
With much laughter, the game would
continue all afternoon.
The Reed home would host many guests
who would sometimes stay up to a year
including a young Egyptian prince (who
accompanied the family to Lebanon
during IC’s move in 1936) and famous
British writer, Arnold Toynbee, who be-
gan writing his then infamous 12 volume
analysis, ‘A Study of History’, during his
stay at IC.
Reed’s birth came not too long after the
end of WWI, two years before the Great
Fire of Smyrna and in the midst of turbu-
lent Greek-Turkish relations. Alexander
MacLachlan was then caught between
appeasing the Ottoman rulers, war recov-
ery and giving “his” IC boys an education
that went well beyond languages and
mathematics.
“Grandfather taught himself Armenian,
Turkish and Greek – the main groups
in Smyrna at the time,” said Reed, “and
he was a person who got on well with
people. Even though his two sons had
joined the British army (MacLachlan was
Canadian and therefore a British subject
and enemy alien during WWI), the Turk-
ish authorities greatly respected him and
he always had good relations with the
‘wali’ and education minister.”
Impeccably dressed in a clerical shirt
with a collar, the 6’2’’ white mustached
MacLachlan was always reaching out to
surrounding communities. As a former
farmer in Canada, he built an adjacent
farm to the campus and provided nearby
villages with farm animals (imported
cows, chickens, for crossbreeding purpos-
es) and provided agricultural workshops
for local farmers.
“Any problems that arose, he took care
of quietly on a personal basis before they
grew into real problems,” said Reed. “He
was a very busy man but he always had
time to stop and say hello.”
MacLachlan just loved the College. It
was his life. It was Howard Reed’s life too
until the Reed family left Turkey in 1934
when the College suddenly shut down.
It opened two years later in Lebanon and
has since become known as IC.
“It was a sad day when we left IC and Tur-
key,” he recalled. “We were heartbroken.”
MacLachlan had by then retired and was
living in Canada. “He was sad about it,”
recalled Reed. “I remember him telling
me that ‘you are guided by God. I learned
in my life when everything seems to be
closing in on you and you can’t find a way
out, you should always keep your mind,
your eye and your heart open. Somewhere
is a little window opening with a new
idea, a new possibility, a better opportu-
nity and you must be ready and waiting
for such openings.’”
The ‘opening’ turned out to be AUB’s prep
school in Beirut. It couldn’t have been
easy but MacLachlan voted for the move.
The Reed family didn’t stay to see the
opening of IC in Beirut. Cass Reed hand-
ed over the school to AUB and took up a
one year position as a visiting professor at
the university.The Reed children attended
ACS. A year after their return to the US,
IC was established with Archie Crawford
as its principal.The year was 1936.
Howard Reed went on to graduate from
Yale University and joined the US Navy
just as WWII broke out. After a short
stint in Washington DC, Reed found
himself sent back along the Turkish coast.
Many harrowing experiences later, Reed
and his relatively few commandos became
known for defeating large enemy forces
with little tactical operations. He would
be called upon to teach other army units
his methods of operations. At one point
during the war, he found himself back in
Smyrna (Turkey was neutral) for a short
break from the incessant bombing from
enemy aircrafts.
His wartime experiences could fill
volumes but it was a self-made oath that
stands out the most. In 1943, during a
vicious bombing cycle, he looked up from
his ship to see his potential killer – a
German pilot – struggling to eject himself
from his fighter plane.The pilot failed and
the plane took a direct hit. It was then
that Reed made his oath. “Dear God,
what am I doing here? We are young
people trying to destroy each other,” he
said. “I make a pledge to myself that un-
less it means the life of another person I
will never fire a shot in anger at anyone
during my service.”
And despite some very dangerous mo-
ments, he managed to keep that oath.
The war over, Reed married and con-
tinued his graduate studies at Princeton
University. In 1955, he returned to Beirut
for a one year stay as a Ford Foundation
Representative.
Believing that he should make a differ-
ence wherever he goes, Reed is credited
with starting the Islamic Studies at Yale
and Princeton Universities and the Is-
lamic Studies for the Near East Studies at
McGill University and the Middle East
Association of North America as well as
authoring numerous studies about Turkey
and the Middle East. So long is his list of
achievements that he was twice listed in
the ‘Who’s Who’.
Reed had three children from his first
marriage and wed fellow professor,
Shafiga Daulet, in 1985.
Seventy-eight years after he left IC in
Turkey, the memories remain very much
alive. He has been back several times to
visit the original College in Turkey, which
is now a Turkish army headquarters.
In 1940, Alexander MacLachlan passed
away but the MacLachlan pride and
spirit seems to be very much alive in the
Reed household. Love, trust, build and
live simply. “These are my philosophies,”
said Reed.
My three-day stay passed all too quickly.
There was much to be told. And so it was
with a heavy heart that I left the Reeds –
and the last link to IC’s amazingly rich past.
Dr. Howard Reed and his brother, Lachlan,
continued to support IC for many years.
In 1990, Howard Reed wrote a historical
booklet about the International College –
one of the few documented histories of the
school ’s past. Currently, Reed’s niece and
nephew, Aida and Ian Reed, serve on IC’s
Board of Trustees.
“It was a sad day when we left IC
and Turkey,” he recalled.
“We were heartbroken.”