The Education Medal for Mr. William Stoltzfus

Educational circles received with pleasure and satisfaction the Lebanese government's gesture of appreciation toward Mr. William Stoltzfus, president of the American College for Girls in Beirut, in conferring on him the Lebanese Education Medal.

William Alfred Stoltzfus was born in 1891 in America; his forefathers had emigrated there in the eighteenth century in pursuit of freedom of belief. Reverence for this freedom remained a living force in the souls of that community's descendants, and it appears plainly today in Mr. Stoltzfus's life and in his service at the Junior College which he heads. His whole life may be considered a life of teaching, for he practiced this profession from his boyhood, when he was tutor to the younger children of the family, and he persevered in teaching even while pursuing his own studies, until he obtained his higher degree. At the end of the First Great War he joined the American Mission in these lands, working first in the American orphanages and relief centers in southern Lebanon; he was then appointed president of Aleppo College, and afterwards — for the past ten years — president of the Junior College for girls. During the thirty years Mr. Stoltzfus has spent in this country, the fine qualities that adorn him and his love for the people of this land have shown themselves plainly, whether in his work in social service or in teaching. There is not a single country in the Arab East without a number of his students, men and women, who, thanks to his training, have become a pillar to lean upon in building the renaissance of this East.

"The Woman's Voice" congratulates Mr. Stoltzfus on the appreciation of the government of this country, which gives him a place of love and gratitude in its heart.