Dorothea Seelye Franck

Dorothea Chambers Seelye Franck (June 8, 1917 – October 27, 1988) was an American writer, editor, and Middle East specialist.

Dorothea Seelye Franck
A white woman with hair in a bouffant updo, looking downward, wearing a dark blouse or dress
Dorothea Seelye Franck, from a 1946 publication of the US Department of State
Born
Dorothea Chambers Seelye

June 8, 1917
Chatham, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedOctober 27, 1988
Syracuse, New York, U.S.
OccupationWriter
RelativesTalcott Williams Seelye (brother); Mary-Averett Seelye (sister); Julius Hawley Seelye (great-grandfather); Kate Seelye (niece)

Early life

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Dorothea Seelye was born in Chatham, New Jersey, the daughter of college professors Laurens Hickok Seelye and Kate Ethel Chambers Seelye,[1] and the great-granddaughter of politician and college president Julius Hawley Seelye.[2] Her mother completed a doctorate at Columbia University in 1919, two years after Dorothea was born.[3] She was raised in Lebanon, where her parents taught at the American University of Beirut.[4] Her sister Mary-Averett Seelye had a career in dance,[5] and her brother Talcott Williams Seelye was a diplomat.[6]

Seelye attended Bryn Mawr College and graduated from St. Lawrence University.[2] She earned a master's degree from American University.[7]

Career

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Seelye worked in Egypt during World War II, translating for the Allies at the Office of Strategic Services. Later she worked in Washington, D.C., at the State Department,[8] and for the American Friends of the Middle East.[9] She edited the Americans for Justice in the Middle East (AJME) News. She founded the Turkish-American Women's Group when she lived in Istanbul from 1956 to 1965.[7][10] She lived in Beirut again in the 1980s,[11] and on her parents' farm in Plainfield, Massachusetts,[12] and in Syracuse, New York.[6]

Publications

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Dorothea Seelye Franck was a writer and editor, usually on topics concerning the Middle East and education, in publications including The Middle East Journal,[13][14] Foreign Service Journal,[15] and The Christian Science Monitor.[16] She also wrote a book about finger crochet, and two children's books.[17]

  • "In the Minds of Men" (1946, pamphlet)[18]
  • "Cultural and Scientific Cooperation in the Near East" (1946, a three-part series)[19]
  • "The Middle East Economy in 1949" (1950, with Peter G. Franck)[14]
  • "The Interchange of Government Experts" (1950)[20]
  • "Implementation of Technical Assistance: United Nations Programs in Haiti" (1951, with Marian Neal and Peter G. Franck)
  • Islam in the Modern World (1951, edited by Franck)
  • "Pakhtunistan - Disputed Disposition of a Tribal Land" (1952)[13]
  • "The American School at Tangier" (1953)[15]
  • The Cat Who Loved Bach (children's book)
  • "Tales" (1958, with Aziz Nesin)[21]
  • "Turkish Women in Engineering" (1961)[16]
  • Mother Kaz (1963, children's book, with Selma Emiroǧlu Aykan̄)
  • "Missionaries Send Bas Reliefs to the United States" (1980)[22]
  • Finger Crochet (1984, with Susan Williamson)

Personal life

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Seelye married German-born economist and professor Peter Goswyn Franck in 1940. They had two daughters, Karen[23] and Marianne. Dorothea Seelye Franck died from cancer in 1988, aged 71 years.[2][17] The Williams-Chambers-Seelye-Franck Papers at Amherst College contain some of her papers.[6] Journalist Kate Seelye is her niece.

References

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  1. ^ "Miss Chambers is MInister's Bride". The New York Times. 1915-10-05. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-09-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b c "Dorothea S. Franck". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 1988-11-01. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Mrs. Seelye Dies; Was Prof in Turkey". The Post-Standard. 1973-06-01. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Dr. L. H. Seelye, 71, Former University Head, Dies Here". The North Adams Transcript. 1960-08-22. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "A Dancer in the Family: Mary-Averett Seelye". The Consecrated Eminence. 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
  6. ^ a b c "The Williams-Chambers-Seelye-Franck Papers ("The Franck Papers")". Amherst College - ArchivesSpace. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  7. ^ a b "Franck Family Keeps Turkish Customs Alive in Syracuse". The Post-Standard. 1967-01-20. p. 13. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ US Department of State, "Turkish Graduate at Chicago Hospital" The Record 11(April 1946): 32.
  9. ^ Walhout, M. D. (2020-10-01). Arab Intellectuals and American Power: Edward Said, Charles Malik, and the US in the Middle East. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7556-3416-3.
  10. ^ "Saturday Club to Hear of Holy Land". The Troy Record. 1969-12-10. p. 24. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Friedman, Josh (1984-03-01). "Clinging to Beirut Amid Chaos and Fear". Newsday. p. 173. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Potter, Mary (1987-10-20). "Sharing Knowledge, Preserving Skills". The Berkshire Eagle. p. 9. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Franck, Dorothea Seelye (1952). "Pakhtunistan: Disputed Disposition of a Tribal Land". Middle East Journal. 6 (1): 49–68. ISSN 0026-3141. JSTOR 4322356.
  14. ^ a b Franck, Dorothea Seelye; Franck, Peter G. (1949). "The Middle East Economy in 1948". Middle East Journal. 3 (2): 201–210. ISSN 0026-3141. JSTOR 4322065.
  15. ^ a b Franck, Dorothea Seelye (January 1953). "The American School at Tangier" (PDF). Foreign Service Journal. 30 (1): 25–26.
  16. ^ a b Franck, Dorothea Seelye. "Turkish Women in Engineering" Christian Science Monitor (July 29, 1961): 5. via Internet Archive
  17. ^ a b Killgore, Andrew I. (April 1989). "In Memoriam: Dorothea Seelye Franck". WRMEA. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
  18. ^ Franck, Dorothea Seelye (1946). In the Minds of Men. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  19. ^ Franck, Dorothea Seelye (January 1946). "Cultural and Scientific Cooperation in the Near East". The Record. 11 (1): 2.
  20. ^ Franck, Dorothea Seelye (1950). "The Interchange of Government Experts". Middle East Journal. 4 (4): 410–426. ISSN 0026-3141. JSTOR 4322219.
  21. ^ Nesin, Aziz; Franck, Dorothea Seelye (1958). "Tales". The Phylon Quarterly. 19 (4): 388–396. doi:10.2307/273102. ISSN 0885-6826. JSTOR 273102.
  22. ^ Crawford, Vaughn Emerson; Harper, Prudence Oliver; Pittman, Holly (1980). Assyrian Reliefs and Ivories in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Palace Reliefs of Assurnasirpal II and Ivory Carvings from Nimrud. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 40–48. ISBN 978-0-87099-260-5.
  23. ^ "Karen A. Franck". Environmental Psychology at The Graduate Center. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
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