John Joseph

Who is John Joseph?

John Joseph is an Assyrian-American educator and historian who taught courses on the history of the Middle East and its relationship with the West at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania from 1961 to 1988.

The son of religious refugees from the turmoil created by World War I in pre-Iran Persia, Joseph attended the American School for Boys in Baghdad. Pennsylvania missionary Calvin Staudt who, with his wife Ida, founded the school, occasionally sent students to his alma mater, F&M. Joseph arrived in 1946, received his degree from F&M in 1950, and subsequently earned a Ph.D from Princeton University. In his long teaching career at F&M, he inspired many students, including business executive Andrew Schindler, class of '72, who contributed the leading sum for the construction of the Joseph International Center at F&M, dedicated to the study of the world's languages, culture, history and politics. Following his retirement from full-time teaching, Joseph has held the title of Lewis Audenreid Professor Emeritus of History.