92 DECEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL It is normal to take for granted familiar buildings, monuments, and organizations that have seemingly been around forever. We seldom pause to think about how they started, who created them, and why. Each has its own story, and many are well worth looking into. Such is definitely the case with the American School of Bucharest, ASB (now the American International School of Bucharest, or AISB). Launched in 1962 by then U.S. Minister (later Ambassador) William A. Crawford and his wife in an apartment in communist Bucharest, with two teachers and six students, it is now an institution with about 900 preschool through 12th grade students from more than 60 countries. The school has more than 280 faculty and staff from 20 countries, a 10-hectare purpose-built campus, and features International Baccalaureate programs at the higher grades. Impressive growth by any standard. But how did ASB get its start? Fortunately, we have the story in Amb. Crawford’s own words. First, a little background. From 1991 to 1995, in my role as deputy chief of mission at U.S. Embassy Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow BY JONATHAN B. RICKERT REFLECTIONS Bucharest, I served as chair of the ASB school board and worked closely with school director Larry Crouch. We were proud of our growing school, then only K through 8th grade but with well over 100 students. Toward the end of the 1994-1995 school year, when Larry and I started thinking about how to make the June 6 graduation ceremony special, we came up with the idea of inviting Amb. Crawford to give the commencement address. As it happened, I knew the ambassador fairly well; and his son Bill was then serving as the embassy’s commercial officer. Though we understood he might be reluctant at the age of 80 to make the long journey to Bucharest, his son’s presence there and the lure of the graduation festivities at the school that he and his wife had founded were enough to entice him back. His address was a great addition to the school’s graduation ceremony and his return visit a resounding success. At my request, Amb. Crawford wrote down his recollections about the founding and early years of the school. His story is transcribed from his handwritten account. e In his letter to me, which included the attached history of the school (at right), Amb. Crawford expressed satisfaction at having launched the school and that it had “become apparently what I thought it eventually would, i.e., an international (or let us say the international) school, but with an American curriculum.” Referring to “the larger exciting story of the school’s later history,” he wrote that “I feel very humble to think of what we started and where it led.” The school had already made impressive strides when he visited in 1995 and has advanced a great deal further since then. As the old English proverb says, “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” n Retired Senior Foreign Service Officer Jonathan B. Rickert spent the majority of his 35-year career in or dealing with Central and Eastern Europe. His final two overseas posts were as deputy chief of mission in Sofia and then Bucharest. AISB class of 2024 graduation. AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUCHAREST
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