Islesboro Central School librarians Carolyn Leach and Cindy Gorham re-position Frank H. Reed Jr.’s picture, taken after his release as a hostage during the mid-80s Iranian conflict. The picture and its frame had become somewhat worn, so recently Prim-rose Framing in Rockland refurbished both.
Frank Reed, American director of the Lebanese International School, was taken hostage on September 9,1986 by members of the Organization of the Islamic Dawn, while on his way to play golf. Hezbollah fighters took Reed to the Sheik Abdullah barracks in the city of Baalbek, Lebanon, where he was held captive for three and a half years.
Reed, a science and math teacher and basketball coach at Islesboro Central School in the early 1960s, told former student and current librarian Carolyn Leach that fond memories of Islesboro and its community helped him to endure the long years of captivity in Lebanon. Leach remembers Reed as a very energetic coach and an inspiring and enthusiastic teacher. Reed returned to the school in 1992 to serve as Islesboro Central School’s commencement speaker for that year’s graduating class.
Now living in Massachusetts, Reed recently donated books, magazine subscriptions, atlases, basketballs and uniforms, microscopes and computer equipment to Islesboro Central School.