Janet Sorg Stoltzfus

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Janet Sorg Stoltzfus
A white woman with dark hair in a bouffant updo, wearing a suit with a white blouse, photographed almost in profile
Janet Sorg Stoltzfus, from a 1962 publication of the US State Department
Born
Janet Lucille Sorg

May 24, 1931
East Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedMarch 5, 2004(2004-03-05) (aged 72)
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationEducator
SpouseWilliam A. Stoltzfus Jr.

Janet Lucille Sorg Stoltzfus (May 24, 1931 – March 5, 2004) was an American educator. As a teacher married to an American diplomat, she established the Ta'iz Cooperative School, the first foreign school in North Yemen.[1] The elementary-level classes included local Yemeni children and the children of embassy families.

Early life[edit]

Janet Sorg was born in East Orange, New Jersey, the daughter of Harrison Theodore Sorg and Mildred Hoops Sorg (later Blasius). Her father was an insurance company executive. She attended the Kent Place School in Summit, New Jersey, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from Wellesley College in 1952.[2] She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a Bachelor of Letters degree at Trinity College Dublin in 1953.[3]

Career[edit]

Sorg was teaching English at the Beirut College for Women when she met her husband, American diplomat William A. Stoltzfus Jr.[3] She accompanied her husband to postings in Ethiopia, Kuwait, Egypt, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen.[4] "A typical Foreign Service couple of middle rank are crew-cut William Stoltzfus Jr. and his delicately pretty wife Janet," wrote columnist Jack Anderson in 1962.[5]

With her husband leading the U.S. legation based in Taiz that formed the center of United States–Yemen relations at the time, the Stoltzfuses were in North Yemen from 1959 to 1961.[1] There, she was the sole teacher at the Ta'iz Cooperative School, a one-room co-educational elementary program she founded in her home. The school originally intended to educate the young children of embassy families, but soon including Yemeni children as well, with permission from the ruler, imam Ahmad bin Yahya.[6][7] It was the first foreign and non-religious school in north Yemen.[1][4][8] A British woman, Joan Bailey, wife of the British diplomat Ronald Bailey, helped at the Taiz school, by teaching sewing and knitting classes.[7] In 1997, Ambassador Stoltzfus gave an oral history interview and emphasized his opinion that "our most valuable contribution while we were in Yemen was my wife's school."[8]

During her husband's other postings, Stoltzfus was head teacher at the English School in Kuwait and the American School in Damascus. She worked with an enrichment program for preschoolers in Ethiopia, and coordinated volunteers for a children's program under the auspices of the Kuwait Handicapped Society.[9][10] She also founded a newsletter for senior citizens in London in the 1980s, titled The Ellesmere Gazette.[10]

After they left the United States Foreign Service in 1976,[11] the Stoltzfus home in Princeton, New Jersey, featured "crosses from Ethiopia, copperware from Iran, royal Arabic seals from Bahrein, a brass chest and a tall exquisite coffee pot from Saudi Arabia, and a massive hand-carved door from Kuwait", all souvenirs of their overseas service.[12] Janet Stoltzfus taught English and religion at Princeton Day School. One of her students at Princeton Day School was Erik Menéndez, and she was one of the former teachers called as a witness at his murder trial.[13]

Personal life[edit]

Janet Sorg married William A. Stoltzfus Jr. in 1954.[3] They had five children, William III,[14] Philip,[15] Winifred,[16] Susan,[17] and Rebecca,[18] all raised in part as embassy children.[19][20] "We subsisted on cans of baked beans from the U.S. military base in Ethiopia," Stoltzfus recalled, "We had a lot of liquor, though."[12] She died from cancer[17] in 2004, at the age of 72, in Princeton, New Jersey.[10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "In Yemen Our Charge Goes Where the Imam Goes". Department of State News Letter (10): 38–39. February 1962.
  2. ^ "Miss Janet Sorg Becomes Fiancee; Member of Beirut College Faculty to Be Married to William A. Stoltzfus Jr". The New York Times. January 10, 1954. p. 99. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Miss Janet Sorg is Bride-Elect". The Item of Millburn and Short Hills. January 14, 1954. p. 6. Retrieved October 22, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "The Stoltzfus Family: A Multi-Generational Legacy" (PDF). LAU Matters: 6. Winter 2016.
  5. ^ Anderson, Jack (November 18, 1962). "Unsung Heroes in our Foreign Service". The Morning Call. p. 104. Retrieved October 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Foreign Service Wife Writes of Taiz School". Department of State News Letter: 13. August 1964.
  7. ^ a b "Janet Sorg Stoltzfus (1931–2004)". al-bab.com. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Lillian P. Mullin (1994, 1997) Oral history interviews with William A. Stoltzfus Jr. Yemen Country Reader.
  9. ^ "In Memory: Janet Sorg Stoltzfus". Foreign Service Journal: 80–81. July–August 2004.
  10. ^ a b c Vogt, Ginna. "Janet Sorg Stoltzfus". The British-Yemeni Society. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  11. ^ "Ambassadors to Kuwait and Liberia Give Notice". Arizona Republic. November 30, 1975. p. 2. Retrieved October 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b Kaplan, Robert D. (July 1, 1995). Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-0870-3.
  13. ^ Johansen, Ruthann Knechel (March 22, 2002). Listening in the Silence, Seeing in the Dark: Reconstructing Life After Brain Injury. University of California Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-520-23114-6.
  14. ^ Braun, Candace (October 8, 2003). "Profiles in Education: William Stoltzfus III". Town Topics. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  15. ^ Haffar, Dana K. (June 2, 2022). "Honoring Former President William A. Stoltzfus' Legacy". LAU. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  16. ^ "Winifred Stoltzfus, Teacher, Is Wed To Christian Host, Computer Analyst". The New York Times. January 5, 1986. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  17. ^ a b "Susan Malinda Stoltzfus (obituary)". The Times (Trenton), via Legacy.com. August 6, 2008. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  18. ^ "Wedding; Rebecca Stoltzfus, Thomas Dineen III". The New York Times. October 28, 2001. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  19. ^ "Janet Sorg Stoltzfus Obituary". The Times, Trenton, via Legacy.com. March 9, 2004. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  20. ^ Stratton, Jean (October 29, 2003). "Princeton Personality". Town Topics. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
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