Background
Galatti, Stephen was born on August 6, 1888 in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, United States. Son of Paul Stephen and Angelique (Kessisoglov) Galatti.
Galatti, Stephen was born on August 6, 1888 in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, United States. Son of Paul Stephen and Angelique (Kessisoglov) Galatti.
Bachelor of Arts, Harvard, 1910. Master of Arts (honorary), Yale, 1956.
He transformed the AFS from a volunteer medical corps during World Wars I and II into an international educational exchange service that has profoundly transformed the lives of thousands of young people around the world. Born in 1888, a graduate of Saint Mark"s School and Harvard College, he quarterbacked the Harvard football team Before World War I he began a career in banking in New York and Paris.
Following the war he returned to private life with the New York firm of Paine Webber.
In World War I, the AFS played a major role in supplying ambulance drivers to the Franco-German front, and many drivers were killed. Following the war, the AFS became dormant except for limited scholarship aid for studies in France.
In 1935 Stephen Galatti became the Director General of the AFS. When World World War II broke out, Galatti summoned veterans World War I to his side. He re-established AFS in 1939 as the Germans invaded Poland then turned on France, England, and Russia.
Despite American isolationism, Galatti organized and equipped the first unit of the AFS, and subsequently served through the war as a Director-General with the rank of Colonel.
Searching for a role for the AFS following the war, he founded the Scholarship Program (AFSIS) in 1946, and then led the AFS as its president for the rest of his life, over time transforming it from an auxiliary medical corps for wartime into an international educational exchange service with tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide.
Served with American Field Service, 1915, assistant inspector general, 1916-1917. Clubs: Knickerbocker, Racquet and Tennis (New New York
Married Grace South. Montgomery, September 25, 1925 (deceased).