Addis Ababa American School History
Opened: 1959
Closed: 1965
Addis Ababa American School was located on Deiazmatch Haile Silassie Street in northeast Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The school was set up with grades one through six as the elementary grades and a junior high for seventh and eighth grades, which were usually combined classes. The ninth through twelve grades were done by correspondence courses. The Military Aid and Advisory Group (MAAG), which administered Kagnew Station, was staffed by several military branches and was set up in developing nations to train the host country’s armed forces. The students at the school were dependents’ of MAAG personnel, American Embassy personnel, Peace Corps employees, and members of other government agencies. At its peak in the 1960s, the MAAG had about three hundred personnel in Ethiopia who were mainly from the Army and Air Force.
The school did not have a cafeteria; on days when the weather was good, which was most of the time, except for the rainy season, the students ate their lunches which were brought from home on wooden benches in the amphitheater. There was a small school store operated by students where one could buy a Coke or Fanta to drink. There was a small library at the school and since there was no television, reading was often the only entertainment. The school had a small playground and athletic fields with crushed volcanic stones and a concrete basketball court.
The school buses for the school were Land Rovers or small Mercedes tour buses that were provided by the military.
Mr. Alexander Lairo was the principal for the 1962-63 school year. The principal for the 63-64 school year was Ted Gehrman, and the principal for the 1964-65 school year was Norman Todd.
The school motto was “United We Stand, Divided We Fall”, and the school colors were red and white. The school had a school prayer and a school song. The school song can be found in the 1962 yearbook.
The first yearbook for the school was produced by the correspondence students for the 1962-63 school year. It was a mimeographed yearbook and covered grades ten through twelve. The yearbook for the 1963-64 school yearbook covered all grades one through twelve. There was no yearbook for the 1964-65 school year. The school newspaper was Tinish Times and was published every two weeks.
Athletics at the school consisted of intermural sports and playing basketball against English schools in the city. Sports included volleyball, cheerleading, track, touch football, and varsity and junior varsity basketball. The school had a Lettermen’s Club.
The school had a student council and a drama program. The first drama production was for the 1963-64 school year. The play Gold from Them Thar Mountings was presented.
For the 1963-64 school year there were twenty-six high school students, thirty-three seventh and eighth grades in a combination class, and 146 elementary students. There were nine staff members.
Information from school yearbooks and former student, Bill Wiseman