Advisory Council

John BLAKE: For 33 years, John was a teacher of English, and later a librarian, at a couple of San Francisco Bay Area high schools. He is currently retired from the teaching profession and is the founder of Friends of Merzifon.

John was born in Istanbul, Turkey where his parents spent 43 years as teachers working for the “Amerikan Bord Heyeti”. The family first moved to Merzifon, a town in central Turkey, and lived there for eight years. His brother and sister were born there while he attended Kara Mustafa Pasa Ilkokulu for grades two and three.

John’s parents were assigned to Izmir when the Merzifon American Girls' School was closed. They were in Izmir for 33 years, during 25 of which his mother was the Principal of the Amerikan Kiz Koleji in Göztepe.

He came to the U.S. at age 14, attended high school and college, and then enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was assigned to the Translation Division of the newly established NATO Headquarters in Izmir. For two years, John and his wife lived in his parents' home where his first child, a son, was born.

In 2000, John founded Friends of Merzifon and teamed up his current hometown, Pleasant Hill, with Merzifon as sister cities. Since then several delegations from both cities have visited each other, including teachers and students. In 2003, John and his family delivered 280 wheelchairs from Friends of Merzifon for the disabled and handicapped people of the city. In 2004, the organization initiated a summer school program and this year, fifteen teachers will be going over to Merzifon for three weeks of teaching English to children.