Howard Edwin Sollenberger was born on April 28, 1917, in North Manchester, Indiana. He was the son of Church of the Brethren Missionaries Oliver Clark Sollenberger and Hazel Coppock Sollenberger, and spent most of his early childhood, through his high school years, in Northern China.
He graduated from the Peking American School in 1935 and returned to the United States to attend Manchester College. However, his college education was interrupted when he returned to China in 1938 to carry out relief work in war-devastated areas of the Shansi Province on behalf of the Brethren Service Committee and the Quakers. He eventually received his B.A. degree from Manchester College in 1941.
After four years in the Civilian Public Service Program in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and South Africa, he joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). He served with UNRRA both in Washinton and China. While in China, he was concurrently a Liaison Officer between UNRRA, the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and the Brethren Service Tractor Unit, as well as Director of the Brethren Service Unit.
In 1947, Sollenberger was appointed Director of the State Department’s Chinese Language and Area School in Peiping, and remained in that post until the evacuation of American personnel in 1950. He returned to the U.S. to join the staff of the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, first as Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, and subsequently as Dean of its School of Language and Area Studies from 1956-1965. In this position, he was responsible for instruction in some 50 foreign languages and their related areas.
From 1966, he served as Associate Director, Acting Director, and Director of the Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute, with responsibility for all professional training of American Diplomats and Foreign Service Personnel. He retired from government service in 1976 as Director Emeritus of the Foreign Service Institutie, with the rank equivalent to that of an Assistant Secretary of State.
Sollenberger served on various committees and advisory groups. He was a member of the first National Public Advisory Committee on Title VI of the National Defense Education Act. He was one of the founders of the Center for Applied Linguistics of the Modern Language Association, and served on its Advisory Committee. He was an advisor to school systems and several colleges and universities on language and area studies. He was a member of the Advisory Committee of the International Affairs Seminars of the American Friends Service Committee, and was one of the initiators of the Peace Corp concept, along with an early advisor on their training.
Sollenberger died on January 19, 1999 at the age of 81 in McLean, Virginia.
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