Stephen Galatti August 6, 1888—July 13, 1964
Stephen Galatti, Director General of the American Field Service for 29 years, died peacefully in Ins sleep on July 13, 1964. He was 75 years old. Mr. Galatti was born in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, in 1SSS. He attended St. Mark's School in Southboro, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard in 1910. He joined Ralli Bros., East India Merchants, in 1911 and worked in India and Eondon until he resigned in 1914 to join a volunteer ambulance service in France which became the American Field Service. When the United States entered the war, the American Field
Service was taken into the U. S. Army Medical Corps, where Mr. Galatti held the rank of Major.
After the war Mr. Galatti joined John Munroe & Co., bankers, and later worked for the Stockbrokers' firm of Jackson & Curtis. He became Director General of the AFS in 1935 and reactivated it when World War II began. At the end of the war, Mr. Galatti and the directors of AFS decided that the ideals of the American Field Service might best be served by a program which would bring European teenage students to the United States for a year of study. The first group of students came to the* United States in 1947.
Under Mr. Galatti's directum, the American Field Service scholarship program e.xpanded to its present si/.e. Over 30,000 students and ambulance drivers have been members of the
American Field Service during its 50-year history, and many more have partieipated in other ways. During his liletime, Stephen Galatti reeeived the Groix de Cuerre and the post of Chevalier in the Legion of Honor, Commander in the Order of tlie British Empire, the Medal of Freedom, the posts of Officer in the Orde van Oranje-Nassau and Verdienstdreuz, erster Klasse, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, an honorary MA from Yale, an honorary LL.D. from the Universitv of Buffalo, and an honorarv EE.D. from Harvard (awarded on |une 11. 1964).
It is now the responsibility of all of us to continue and carry still Further forward the ideals and aspirations for which he worked so long and tirelessly. This is being done at this moment, and will continue.