The History of ISB

By the end of World War II, Bangkok held a small but growing foreign community. The wife of the pastor of Christ Church played a key role, along with a group of parents, in founding a school for children up to 10 years of age. On October 27, 1950, the first of many meetings was held to discuss plans to establish a formal school providing both primary and secondary education for English-speaking children in Bangkok so that the growing population of American diplomatic, commercial and military families had a place to educated their children.

The United States Embassy offered the use of a building located on the embassy grounds near Rajadamri Road -- the Japanese occupation forces had used it as an officers' club. The International Children's Center (ICC) opened in May of 1951, with facilities for handling about 70 students. ICC steadily grew with the foreign community. By 1953 there were more than 200 students. The tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades were soon added. In 1957 six seniors received their high school diplomas. This was the first graduating class.

ISB - The First Years

That same year, ICC changed its name to the International School Bangkok when an International School Association was formed to receive legal recognition from the Thai Government. The school wanted to further promote scholastic achievement and encourage extracurricular activities. By the close of the 1957-58 school year, ISB had more than 500 students. Despite the school's stunning growth and legal recognition, for nearly a decade the students attended classes in barely adequate wood framed buildings, now aged and decaying swiftly in the tropical climate. The library and half the classrooms were transformed into wading ponds during Bangkok's downpours. School assemblies, ceremonial events, and athletic competitions had stretched the grounds to its limits.

Although adjacent to the American Embassy, the school was considered quite a distance from the newly developed residential areas in Bangkapi and Bangsue. The need for a new school location had become a priority. The Wattana Wittaya Academy, a girls boarding school, offered to lease a part of its property to ISB. That land was located between Soi's 15 and 19 off Sukumvit Road. The offer was accepted and new construction began. The architects for the new school were from the Ministry of Education of Thailand. The new campus, which cost nearly 3 million baht, had only two buildings housing classrooms and a gym.

1960-70's - Life on Soi 15

On a drizzly Bangkok morning, September 1, 1960, the International School Bangkok officially began classes at its new location on Soi 15. With over 550 students representing 25 nations, ISB was a truly international school. Members from the Thai government, and religious and private industry leaders made up the ISB Board of Directors. But the student population and curriculum took on a distinctly American flavor. With such influence, ISB became fully accredited with the American Secondary Board of Education, the Middle States School Association and became a member of the National Honor Society and the International Quill and Scroll Society.

Incredibly, before the first year was over at Soi 15, the increasing student body had once more outgrown the facilities. In 1962 and again in 1963, the U.S. Government donated funds to construct additional classroom buildings. They were both completed by 1964 when the student population exceeded 1,200.

In early 1965, the Vietnam War accelerated and many American government dependents were evacuated to Bangkok. The escalating American forces in Vietnam also boosted the number of families coming to Bangkok - and their children to ISB. A fourth multi-story classroom building was completed by the end of that year. Enrollment soared to 3,500 at the end of 1967 and a second campus for grades four through eight was soon opened in Bangsue. The largest enrollment in the school's history occurred in 1969 with 3,650 students.

Family-related activities were important to the foreign community and much civic and social life in Bangkok revolved around ISB. A school-supported Christmas charity drive, dubbed Operation Santa Claus, collected food, clothing and toys for the less fortunate children in the Chiang Mai. Every year the U.S. Air Force transported the toys and several ISB students to Chiang Mai for the event. Fashion shows featuring clothing designs of the local Thai silk and cotton companies were frequent events, using ISB students on the fashion runways. Theme dances became bigger and bigger events - Sadie Hawkins at the beginning of the year to break the ice, the Homecoming dance mid-year, and the Junior/Senior prom at year's end. Many of these events quickly moved from the gymnasium at ISB to the many deluxe hotels that were sprouting up around Bangkok.

Also into the picture came a sleepy little fishing village in Chonburi Province called Pattaya, which for many years had been a retreat for wealthy Bangkok people. Weekends saw families and groups of teens loaded into their cars for the four-hour expedition to escape the heat of the city. Several new hotels sprouted up and many private bungalows were full nearly every weekend. Families enjoyed the relaxing break from Bangkok, the serene atmosphere of the bay and offshore islands, and fabulous fresh seafood at the local restaurants.

The Teen Club, a facility supported by the U.S. Government, was straining to capacity in its Wireless Road building, a few blocks from the American Embassy. The Friday night movies and Saturday night dances brought in so many people they overflowed into the parking lot. Soon a new club was built on Soi Asoke (Soi 21) within walking distance of ISB. It featured a swimming pool and huge dining, dancing and movie hall facilities. At times there were as many as four bands playing in rotation at the Teen Club.

The school also took on a new look during these boom years. The former open-air sala was enclosed to make way for the art, music and industrial arts departments. With its original snack bar overwhelmed, the Foremost Company constructed a new facility with the latest technology. Later, the gym and many of the classrooms were air-conditioned. Larger student orchestra groups could be assembled and the music department grew rapidly.

The massive athletic field of ISB was a constant headache. Many a morning would find the indomitable patriarch of sports at ISB, Mr. P.E. Rajendra, walking its length checking for snakes before the first period of gym. Every year the track would be built up with sand and ash only to see it settle again after the monsoon season. It was a constant battle with the elements that was not won until the 1980's when the entire area was back filled and lights for evening events were installed. Intramural sports competition was an important aspect of school life in these days. Owing to the lack of local competition within the students' age groups, the school was divided into four teams or "houses", each with a name, flag and color. But the crowning athletic event of the school year was the Singapore Games in which ISB athletes challenged the teams from the Singapore American School (later the Singapore International School).

(The Soi 15 campus is now a school operated by the United Nations and the site of the Soi 21 Teen Club is now a high-rise condo.)

1980-1990's - Soi Samakee

With the ebb of American military involvement in Southeast Asia and the fall of Saigon in 1975, the number of American families living in Bangkok declined. In 1976, the Bangsue campus was sold and the Intermediate School was moved to the Bangkapi Soi 15 campus. For more than 10 years ISB's enrollment hovered around 1,200 students until the boom years of the late 1980's. When Thailand began to emerge as a newly industrialized nation bursting with development and foreign investment foreign nationals from all over the world came to live and work in Bangkok.

Enrollment began increasing once again. By 1988, the school's Board of Directors decided to move to a new campus in the northern sector of Bangkok, four times the size of the Soi 15 campus. In January 1992, the 1,900 students representing 52 nationalities moved to the new campus. It is fitting that ISB made its new home on Soi Samakee ("samakee" in Thai means "togetherness"). For more than four decades, ISB has seen many nations, races, religions and cultures coming together to learn. So many people have brought success to ISB - the board members, the administrators, the teachers and most of all, the students.

The Birth of the ISB Network

While all of the above was taking place in Thailand those of us that had attended ISB were moving along with our adult lives in all corners of the world, with the largest concentration of alumni in the USA. Getting back to ISB was a dream for most, and no one we had gone to school with would have been there even if we did return. But keeping in touch with the friends made at ISB was a bit more realistic if not an awe-inspiring task, especially in the days before the Internet. A few individuals began to put together small gatherings of those that they had been able to keep in touch with. From those small beginnings the ISB Network began to come together, one address and one phone number at a time.

The ISB Network is a non-profit organization, registered in the state of Georgia, with a volunteer Board of Directors (BOD) made up of 13 individuals from all over the USA. Forever more the ISB Network owes a debt of gratitude to Joe Condrill ('73) and Mimi Drake Parks ('73) for their vision of what could be. Many others have also contributed in countless ways over the years to keep Joe's and Mimi's vision alive and growing.

Through tireless effort and tenacity we now have more than 5,000 individual entries in our database from around the world. More than 350 members who contribute $40 biannually to the overall operating budget support the Network. These dues enable the Network to maintain an alumni database, publish an annual directory, maintain a web site, publish newsletters and plan and run a biannual reunion.

The ISB Network would not be in existence today without the loyalty, work, and time all the volunteers put into keeping the Network alive and growing. Each person who mentions, writes, or calls someone plays an integral part in the Network. All the BOD asks of you is that you do your part to keep the vision alive: join the Network to help us defray expenses; notify us if you move or see an address error that needs to be corrected; volunteer to work with your class group in finding missing members; and if you are so inspired and have the spare time volunteer to serve on the BOD.

HISTORY OF THE ISB NETWORK

• 1961, 1963 and 1983 - Gil Hair ('60) organized mini-reunions for the classes of '58, '59 and '60 in Washington, D.C.

• 1981- Bob Athearn ('71) and Tony Rickard (71) organized a 10-year reunion that included other classes, in Denver, Colorado. The attendance was nearly 100 people. 

• 1983 - Carroll Smeltzer ('73) organized a 10-year reunion, also held in Colorado, for the class of '73. The estimated attendance was around 50 people. 

• 1984 - Mimi Drake Wetherington ('73) organized the first official reunion of the ISB Network using mailing list of 141 names from the class of '73. 

• 1987 - Bob March ('67), his sister Meredith March McNamee ('69) and Barbara Stillwell Snook ('69) organized a 20-year reunion of the '66 - '70 group at Grand Lake, Colorado attended by about 60. 

• 1991 - Maile McCoskrie Busby ('67) organized a reunion of about 50 attendees from '66 -'70 in Irvine, California because Marit Mellhuse ('67) was visiting from her home in Oslo, Norway.

ISB Network Bi-Annual Reunions

• Atlanta 1984 - Atlanta Airport Hilton Inn, Atlanta, GA. August 10-12. 125 people in attendance. During the business meeting, plans were made to form an alumni group for all associated with ISB, publish newsletters, mailing list, biography book, and hold a second reunion in two years. 

• San Diego 1986 - Holiday Inn, San Diego, CA. August 15-17. 213 people came. The mailing list had grown to over one thousand. The alumni group included the members from the '60s. 

• Boston 1988 - Marriott Hotel, Cambridge, MA. August 5-7. 180 people in attendance. 

• San Antonio 1990 - Fountain Plaza Hotel, San Antonio, TX. August 10-12. 300 came. 

• Seattle 1992 - Airport Red Lion Inn, Seattle, WA. July 30-August 2. 165 people. 

• Clearwater 1994 - Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Clearwater, FL. August 4-7. 200 people. 

• Dallas 1996 - Harvey Hotel Addison, Dallas, TX. July 25-28. 150 people. 

• Long Beach 1998 - Seaport Marina Hotel, Long Beach, CA. August 14-16. 330 people. This was the largest and most successful Reunion to date. Graduates from the Classes of 1958 through 1994 were in attendance. 

• Williamsburg 2000 - Radisson Ft. Magruder Inn, Williamsburg, VA. August 4-6. A record-breaking crowd of more than 500 attended.

• Phoenix 2002 - Wigwam Resort-Litchfield in Phoenix, AZ.  August 2-4.  Close to 500 alumni, family and friends attended.

• St. Petersburg 2004 - Tradewinds Resort, St. Pete's Beach, FL August 13-15.  We expected to break all previous attendance records but an unexpected guest, hurricane Charley, had other plans for us!

• San Antonio 2006 - The Carilon Hotel August 3-5. The hotel was smaller, but poolside fun could not have been larger for the House Games! San Antonio blessed us with milder weather - only the mid 90s!

Home Sweet Homecoming - ISB Celebrates 50 Years

Nearly 200 alumni descended on Bangkok in January 2002 to help ISB celebrate its 50th birthday. Alumni were treated as dignitaries at the Soi Samakee campus, partied hardy on Soi 15, and attended a lavish dinner/dance at the Marriott Garden Resort and Spa, owned by alumni Bill and Kathy Heinecke.

Organized by Freda Williams and her dedicated team, homecoming highlights included an opening day ceremony at the Soi Samakee campus with the Elementary School Choir singing "Welcome Back" and the Senior Choir closing the 2-hour show with "Bridge Over Troubled Water". The Friday night sock hop provided additional live entertainment as teachers and ISB staff put on a show for the alumni, singing and dancing their way through the decades. Saturday's events ended with a spectacular theatrical presentation complete with Thai dancers, floating dragons and brilliant fireworks.