Origin of the American School of Bucharest

In the period immediately following World War II, our diplomatic missions in Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Belgrade, and Budapest all reestablished elementary schools of their own dating back to the prewar years. Our only missions in Eastern Europe without them were Bucharest and Sofia.

During a visit to Bucharest in 1955, I noted that the lack of any American school there presented a morale problem for children and parents alike. Mothers with children taught their own in their own fashion, at the cost of much time and energy, and with mixed results. There was general dissatisfaction with the prevailing situation, compromising rapport between families and among children.

When I was appointed U.S. minister to Romania, in November 1961, my wife and I had personal reason to recall my earlier reaction. For we had become the parents of two small children, ages 8 and 6, who were to accompany us there. We realized instantly that we must start a school.

Mrs. Crawford was not without experience in such matters, having directed the American School in Prague from 1957 to 1959. So, before leaving home, we held consultations on appropriate texts and procedures with the Potomac School in Washington and the Calvert School in Baltimore, the latter being well known for its own system of home instruction.

Thus prepared, upon arriving in Bucharest we were able to enlist the enthusiastic support of the staff for a voluntary effort to set up a legation school.

By a timely stroke of luck, we were soon blessed by the sudden availability of a recently vacated apartment of suitable size, which was not to be reoccupied. Happily, the Romanian Foreign Ministry graciously acceded to our request that we continue to rent it as premises for an American school, and in response to our further request for suggestions for a qualified Romanian teacher with appropriate professional background and knowledge of English, they recommended Mrs. Minella Suma.

Hence the stage was set for us to establish a six-grade elementary school, starting in the fall of 1962, with six legation children, plus Mrs. Suma and one American wife as teachers. As for the latter, the air attaché’s wife, Mrs. Pat Polivka, who had prior teaching experience, promptly volunteered and served for the next three years with skill and enthusiasm.

The new school was to be well equipped. American class books were ordered from home. School desks, blackboards, and other supplies were purchased in Frankfurt and brought in on the U.S. Air Force cargo plane on which the minister was allowed to travel. The Association of American Foreign Service Women (now Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide) generously presented a collection of children’s books and reference texts to form a small library.

Although it was an entirely voluntary undertaking, costs were, more or less, adequately covered by official education allowances.

Once the school had opened, its academic results were soon to prove most gratifying, and parent-student morale remained high. Over the next three years, prior to our departure in October 1965, the school gradually grew in size. In addition to legation children, we soon began to admit children from foreign missions with an already good knowledge of English. We insisted on one point only, that a standard American curriculum be maintained.

By 1965, the school had become sufficiently large and well regarded to attract direct State Department funding and support, including an offer to send us a full-time director from Washington. Thereupon, all was fair sledding, and after leaving Bucharest, I learned that not long afterward the growing school had moved to new and larger quarters.

In our day, we already considered the new school a marked success, and upon returning home, all its first students transferred easily into their respective grades or higher. There are good reasons, of course, why it prospered then, and increasingly later, as an institution. As a reminder, I should mention that among the most important, and not to be forgotten, is the cooperation we received from the Romanian Foreign Ministry.

In a real sense, the school turned out to be an admirable joint venture. For without Romanian approval of its initial location and the invaluable assistance of Mrs. Suma since its inception, the school could never have taken off and flourished as it did.

Perhaps impressed by our example, and capping it all, the State Department subsequently took the initiative to establish an American school in Sofia, thus completing the circle of officially sponsored American schools in Eastern Europe.

—Ambassador William A. Crawford
Greensboro, Vermont
Aug. 19, 1994

When sharing or linking to FSJ articles online, which we welcome and encourage, please be sure to cite the magazine (The Foreign Service Journal) and the month and year of publication. Please check the permissions page for further details.