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Theodore "Ted" C. Achilles (Junior)

Theodore Carter Achilles, Jr. (January 14, 1936 – August 21, 2018) was an American entrepreneur, politician, banker, women's rights activist, and philanthropist who co-founded the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA) in Kabul, Afghanistan. Achilles lived in Afghanistan for 12 years after the events of September 11, 2001 had "brought him out of retirement," impacting the lives of hundreds of Afghan boys and girls through his work and personal initiatives. Known as "Baba Ted" or "Mr. Ted" to his students, Achilles is known for coining his own adages such as “Solutions to Afghanistan’s often seemingly intractable problems will come from educated Afghans, especially Afghan women, and cannot be imposed from outside.”

Biography

Achilles was born on January 14, 1936 in Washington, to Marian Field and Theodore Carter Achilles. He was educated at St Paul's School in New Hampshire (class of 1954), Yale University (BA in Political Sciences, 1958) and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (MA in Developmental Economics, 1962). In 1958, he joined the US Army where he attended Infantry Officer's School and qualified as an Airborne Ranger. After graduating from Fletcher, he spent the next decade working in international banking, including for Citi Bank. During his 25-year career as an entrepreneur and businessman, he successfully turned around  several  companies, and served two terms in the Oregon State Legislature ([1980 to 1984??? 1977 to 1979???)  http://library.state.or.us/repository/2011/201101131436324/index.pdf] while raising a  family  of  five  children. He retired in 1996.

After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995, Achilles made a vow to "make the rest of his life useful." In 2001, the events following [|September 11] gave him the opportunity he had sought to do so, by coming out of retirement and moving to Afghanistan. In 2002, he took a two-month trip to Afghanistan at the suggestion of then Peace Corps Country Director Louis Mitchell. Achilles returned to Afghanistan in February 2003 and would end up living there until February 2015.

When he first arrived in Kabul in 2003, Achilles opened the Kabul Office of Paxton International, a global freight forwarding company, with one truck driver. In 2009, he handed over the company to an Afghan who assumed full profit and loss responsibility. In 2004, he helped set up the State Department's [| Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program]. As program director for American Councils who hired Afghan staff and selected the students, Achilles brought hundreds of Afghan high school students to the USA for a year of study. His work included travelling to dozens of provinces by car and ultimately selecting about 40 finalists per year for their high school year in the United States. Under Achilles' leadership, the YES program had a female participation rate of about 40%, an impressive number for a conservative country. Achilles expressed frustration at his inability to stop YES student defections to Canada, which he blamed on the program's lack of assistance to returning students. This led him to leaving the American Council in 2008 and opening a boarding school for Afghan women at his own initiative, a first in Afghanistan. One of his YES students, Shabana_Basij-Rasikh, became the co-founder of the [|"School of Leadership Afghanistan,"] which she appropriately named "SOLA" ("Sola" means "peace" in the Pashtu language). In October 2008, SOLA started operations with four female students in Achilles' house in Kabul. Ten years later, SOLA had over 70 students from 23 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, representing every major ethnic and religious group in the nation.

From 2009 [till his death?], Achilles was a Director of the Abdul Madjid Zabuli (AMZ) Foundation based in West Palm Beach, Florida, and from 2013 to 2015 managed their Kabul office. The AMZ Foundation  manages the  estate of  the late [|Abdul Madjid Zabuli] (1890-1994) whose wealth was the result of successful entrepreneurial pursuits in Russia (before the October Revolution), in Germany (before World War II) and in Afghanistan, where he inaugurated the  commercial banking system and founded his country’s Central Bank, Da Afghanistan Bank. Foundation activities under Achilles included support for MBA scholarships at American University of Afghanistan and for a non-profit maternity clinic in Kabul. In 2014, Achilles became the Managing Director of the AMZ Foundation's Educational Support & Development Organization of Afghanistan to help provide educational opportunities and economic enhancement to  rural  Afghans,  especially women.

Private Life

Achilles grew up the son of a diplomat, Theodore Carter Achilles - an Ambassador to Peru (1956-1960), director and Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council, and key architect of NATO. Achilles had three siblings, Steve, Daphne and Anne. He was very close to his sister Anne (O'Brien) (+ 2016 in Chatham, Massachusetts), scarcely 15 months older than him. Growing up in Europe, Peru, his parents were remote. Achilles was married to Joan Baker from 1961 to 1994 with whom he had five children, Stephen, Helen, Susan, Theodore "Todd" and Jennifer.

Health and September 11

In June 1995, Achilles had his first positive biopsy of prostate cancer. He was treated with external beam radiation in Anchorage, Alaska where he was working at the time. He often credited that experience with his decision to "make the rest of my life useful," inspired by Robert Frost's poem for self-motivation: "I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep." In 2001, he had a second positive biopsy and was told by his doctor that the period of "watchful waiting" was over. He received radiation in Seattle. Achilles often recounted how profoundly he was affected by the events of September 11 and how his "journey of a thousand miles" to Afghanistan began with the first step he took on that night during a candle light vigil of University of Washington students on Gas Works Park overlooking Lake Washington in Seattle. In 2005, a Prostate Specific Antigen test revealed that the cancer cells had returned. By this time, Achilles was already in Afghanistan and decided to stay. He credited his Urologist Dr. Tom Green with giving him "the years to do the job" in Afghanistan. Achilles died on 21 August 2018 at a hospice in Portland, Oregon.

Recognition

In April 2011, Achilles received the Pax Populi Peacemaker Award. In September 2011, Achilles was awarded the "Starfish Award" by Indiana-based NGO Friends of Afghanistan presented by Afghan Ambassador Hakimi, for his work with Afghan YES students and co-founding SOLA. In April 2015, Achilles received the Alumni Association Award from St. Paul's school.

References

Ted Achilles, Who Gave Afghan Girls Access to Education, Died at 82 - New York Times, 29 August 2018

Ted Achilles, Founder of SOLA, receives Pax Populi Peacemaker Award Leaving a Legacy: Ted Achilles, Jr.