Founder
Reverend Elias Riggs was a prominent figure among the expatriate scholars, missionary emissaries of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions based in Boston. His affinity for languages led him to learn most of the local languages he encountered during his sixty years in the East. His missionary work began in 1833 from Greece, as head of the translation and publishing work of the mission in Constantinople. Of his 14 children and grandchildren, 13 followed him in his missionary vocation in the Near East. One of his sons, Edward, helped found Anatolia College in 1886, and his grandson, Ernest, was to become the fourth President of Anatolia College.
