Dr. John Henry House is still here. His spirit, his aspirations, his vision, his love for people, and his urge to give and educate are rooted in the soil and found under every stone at the American Farm School. His emblematic and charismatic personality has decisively contributed not only to the founding of the School but also to its establishment in the wider region as one of the best educational institutions.

People who had met him personally said that "He was a man of peace, creation and teaching. He always spoke jokingly about the past and among his friends were Metropolitans and priests of the Orthodox Church, Roman Catholics and Muslims."

He was born on Thursday, 29 May 1845 in the small town of Painesville, located in northeastern Ohio. He graduated from the Western Reserve University in 1868 and in 1871 he received his degree in Theology from the Union Theological Seminary. A year later, on September 27, at the age of 27, he married Susan Adeline Beers, who was five years younger. They were still newlyweds when they left the U.S. and came to the Balkans as part of a mission.

Dr. John Henry House and his wife settled in Thessaloniki in 1902 from Bulgaria where they had served as missionaries for 30 years. He was always working, building, cultivating, and generally did whatever was needed to help the poverty-stricken Balkan region.

He was 65 years old when he found the area in Central Macedonia to build the Farm School of his dreams. The Congressionalist Church did not support his efforts, so he resigned from his position and started a new life.  He focused on a school with ten children who had survived a massacre at a Monastery. He found volunteer teachers: a builder, a carpenter, a tailor and a shoemaker who were willing to teach their art in exchange for learning about priesthood. They all stayed in a hut.

Dr. House never questioned his venture, but he often had to persuade others. Teachers who have their own ideas about what education is are not always easy to convince; he did not know how his faith would shatter the waters. He strongly believed that if life conditions in the Balkans improved, it would lead to maintaining peace in the region.

Dr. and Mrs. House had seven children, grandchildren, and were lucky to even see great grandchildren. As the children grew up, one after the other returned to the US to study, which made it impossible for the whole family to be together.

Even at an old age he never stopped working. He would walk around the School - even if he was inappropriately dressed, wearing his suit and vest with the golden "key" Phi Beta Kappa (a symbol given to honor roll students at the graduation ceremony) hanged on his chest, a white collar and a soft hat – and would saw trees or farm using a plow. He passed away on April 19, 1936, leaving behind a huge legacy that forever marked the course of the American Farm School.

Angelos Angelidis