Terry Anderson
Encyclopedia
Terry A. Anderson is the best known, and longest held, hostage of a group of American
s believed to be captured by Shiite Hezbollah militants in an attempt to drive U.S. military forces from Lebanon
during the Lebanese Civil War
.
and raised in Batavia, New York, where he graduated from Batavia High School
in 1965.
A professional journalist
, he was in the United States Marine Corps
during the Vietnam War
, where he was a combat correspondent (1969–70). After his discharge he enrolled at Iowa State University
, studying broadcast journalism
and graduating in 1974. Then he joined the Associated Press
, serving in Asia and Africa before being assigned to Lebanon as the chief Mideast correspondent in 1983.
, placed in the trunk of a car, and taken to a secret location where he was imprisoned. For the next six years and nine months, he was held captive, being moved periodically to new sites. His captors were a group of Hezbollah Shiite Muslims who were supported by Iran
in supposed retaliation for Israel
's use of U.S. weapons and aid in its 1982–83 strikes against Muslim
and Druze
targets in Lebanon.
Held at the same time were several other U.S. citizens, including Thomas Sutherland, an administrator at the American University of Beirut
; Catholic priest, Father Lawrence Jenco
; Presbyterian minister Benjamin Wier; Jeremy Levin, CNN's Beirut bureau chief; Frank Reed, head of the Lebanese International School; Joseph Cicippio, deputy controller of the American University of Beirut; Edward Tracey, an itinerant poet
; and Professors Allen Steen
, Jesse Turner, and Robert Polhill.
Anderson was released on December 4, 1991 and says he has forgiven his captors.
. He has also been a frequent talk show guest, a columnist, a radio talk-show host and an activist for charitable causes.
He has written a best selling memoir of his experience as a hostage, entitled Den of Lions.
He filed suit against the Iranian government for his captivity, and in 2002 was awarded a multimillion dollar settlement from frozen Iranian assets.
Anderson for some time lived in Nicholasville, Kentucky
and he teaches journalism and diversity at the University of Kentucky
.
Retired, Anderson now lives on a farm in Athens County, Ohio
with his second wife, Madeleine "Maddy" Bassil. Gabrielle, Anderson's older daughter from his previous marriage to Mihoko "Mickey" Anderson, whom he met and married while stationed with the U.S. Marine Corps in Japan, lives in Tokyo
and works as a paralegal.
With some of his settlement, Anderson and actress Kieu Chinh
co-founded the Vietnam Children's Fund
, which has built schools in Vietnam attended by more than 12,000 students. He also created the Father Lawrence Jenco Foundation with a $100,000 endowment to honor and support people who do charitable and community service projects in Appalachia
. His friend, Father Jenco, who died in 1996, also wrote his memoirs, Bound to Forgive, to which Anderson wrote the preface.
A lifelong fan of blues music, Anderson has also opened the Blue Gator, a blues bar in Athens, Ohio
which draws regional and national acts, from Cincinnati's Greg Schaber to Delta blues legend Big Jack Johnson.
In an interview in the spring 1995 newsletter of the School of Journalism Alumni Association, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, by Will Norton Jr., Anderson is quoted:
In 2009, Anderson joined the faculty of the School of Journalism at the University of Kentucky
in Lexington, Kentucky
. In November 2009, he filed for bankruptcy under chapter 7.
He is currently teaching journalism at the University of Kentucky.
Anderson will teach at Syracuse University in the fall of 2011.
. Anderson's opponent was Republican candidate Joy Padgett
, who had been appointed to the seat earlier in the term. Padgett ran controversial ads suggesting that Anderson would be soft on terrorism; the ads showed Anderson shaking hands with one of his former kidnappers. He received 46% of the vote in a district that leans Republican; the seat has been held by Republicans since 1977.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
s believed to be captured by Shiite Hezbollah militants in an attempt to drive U.S. military forces from Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
during the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
.
Early life
Anderson was born in Lorain, OhioLorain, Ohio
Lorain is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River, about 30 miles west of Cleveland....
and raised in Batavia, New York, where he graduated from Batavia High School
Batavia High School (Batavia, New York)
Batavia High School is a public high school in Batavia, New York, USA. It is the only public high school in the Batavia City Schools district. The school has approximately 800 students and approximately 75 teachers.-External links:*...
in 1965.
A professional journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, he was in the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, where he was a combat correspondent (1969–70). After his discharge he enrolled at Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
, studying broadcast journalism
Broadcast journalism
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are "broadcast", that is, published by electrical methods, instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. Broadcast methods include radio , television , and, especially recently, the Internet generally...
and graduating in 1974. Then he joined the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, serving in Asia and Africa before being assigned to Lebanon as the chief Mideast correspondent in 1983.
Hostage in Lebanon
On March 16, 1985, Anderson had just finished a tennis game when he was abducted from the street in BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, placed in the trunk of a car, and taken to a secret location where he was imprisoned. For the next six years and nine months, he was held captive, being moved periodically to new sites. His captors were a group of Hezbollah Shiite Muslims who were supported by Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
in supposed retaliation for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's use of U.S. weapons and aid in its 1982–83 strikes against Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
and Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
targets in Lebanon.
Held at the same time were several other U.S. citizens, including Thomas Sutherland, an administrator at the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
; Catholic priest, Father Lawrence Jenco
Lawrence Jenco
Servite Father Lawrence Martin Jenco, , a native of Joliet, Illinois, was taken hostage in Beirut by five armed men in January 1985, while serving as director of Catholic Relief Services there. He was held for 564 days before being released and allowed to return to the United States. He died in...
; Presbyterian minister Benjamin Wier; Jeremy Levin, CNN's Beirut bureau chief; Frank Reed, head of the Lebanese International School; Joseph Cicippio, deputy controller of the American University of Beirut; Edward Tracey, an itinerant poet
Itinerant poet
An itinerant poet or strolling minstrel was a wandering minstrel, bard, or other poet common in medieval Europe but extant today....
; and Professors Allen Steen
Allen Steen
Allen R. Steen is an American martial arts practitioner, teacher, and promoter. He was taught by Jhoon Rhee, the "Father of American Taekwondo", and was the first of Rhee's American students to reach black belt standing. He was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame in 2007.Steen was a business...
, Jesse Turner, and Robert Polhill.
Anderson was released on December 4, 1991 and says he has forgiven his captors.
Present life
Since his release Anderson has been actively involved in freedom of the press issues. He has taught courses at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio UniversityOhio University
Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...
. He has also been a frequent talk show guest, a columnist, a radio talk-show host and an activist for charitable causes.
He has written a best selling memoir of his experience as a hostage, entitled Den of Lions.
He filed suit against the Iranian government for his captivity, and in 2002 was awarded a multimillion dollar settlement from frozen Iranian assets.
Anderson for some time lived in Nicholasville, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
and he teaches journalism and diversity at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
.
Retired, Anderson now lives on a farm in Athens County, Ohio
Athens County, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 62,223 people, 22,501 households, and 12,713 families residing in the county. The population density was 123 people per square mile . There were 24,901 housing units at an average density of 49 per square mile...
with his second wife, Madeleine "Maddy" Bassil. Gabrielle, Anderson's older daughter from his previous marriage to Mihoko "Mickey" Anderson, whom he met and married while stationed with the U.S. Marine Corps in Japan, lives in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
and works as a paralegal.
With some of his settlement, Anderson and actress Kieu Chinh
Kieu Chinh
Kieu Chinh is a Vietnamese American actress best known for her role in The Joy Luck Club...
co-founded the Vietnam Children's Fund
Vietnam Children's Fund
Vietnam Children’s Fund is a non-profit organization based in Unionville, Virginia, United States, helping the children of Vietnam.It builds “turnkey” schools to modern standards, ready for occupation....
, which has built schools in Vietnam attended by more than 12,000 students. He also created the Father Lawrence Jenco Foundation with a $100,000 endowment to honor and support people who do charitable and community service projects in Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
. His friend, Father Jenco, who died in 1996, also wrote his memoirs, Bound to Forgive, to which Anderson wrote the preface.
A lifelong fan of blues music, Anderson has also opened the Blue Gator, a blues bar in Athens, Ohio
Athens, Ohio
Athens is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Athens County, Ohio, United States. It is located along the Hocking River in the southeastern part of Ohio. A historic college town, Athens is home to Ohio University and is the principal city of the Athens, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area. ...
which draws regional and national acts, from Cincinnati's Greg Schaber to Delta blues legend Big Jack Johnson.
In an interview in the spring 1995 newsletter of the School of Journalism Alumni Association, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, by Will Norton Jr., Anderson is quoted:
- Is there going to be peace in the world? I’m a Christian. I believe eventually there will be, at the second coming. I think we are moving into an era of greater, or if not peace, at least of greater prosperity.
- Think about it: In the last 10 to 15 years there are hundreds of millions of people in the world who are living in a greater degree of individual responsibility and freedom and perhaps dignity than there were 15 years ago. That’s true in eastern Europe, in Latin America, even in Asia.
- That great process of history, of thousands of years of an increase in a dignity of the individual, seems to have been halted for a good period of time by the growth of totalitarian societies, and those are breaking up now.
- Certainly the totalitarian instinct has not gone away. There are a great many wars going on and struggles by peoples, but that ice jam, that blockage that was representative of the domination of a third of the world by communism, is gone. I think that’s reason for great optimism.
In 2009, Anderson joined the faculty of the School of Journalism at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
in Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
. In November 2009, he filed for bankruptcy under chapter 7.
He is currently teaching journalism at the University of Kentucky.
Anderson will teach at Syracuse University in the fall of 2011.
2004 State Senate Campaign
In December 2003 Terry Anderson announced his candidacy on the Democratic ticket to represent the 20th District in the Ohio SenateOhio Senate
The Ohio State Senate is the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly, the legislative body for the U.S. state of Ohio. There are 33 State Senators. The state legislature meets in the state capital, Columbus. The President of the Senate presides over the body when in session, and is currently Tom...
. Anderson's opponent was Republican candidate Joy Padgett
Joy Padgett
Joy Padgett is a former Republican member of the Ohio Senate, representing the 20th district until the end of 2008. In 2006, dogged by personal scandals, she ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and for Congress in...
, who had been appointed to the seat earlier in the term. Padgett ran controversial ads suggesting that Anderson would be soft on terrorism; the ads showed Anderson shaking hands with one of his former kidnappers. He received 46% of the vote in a district that leans Republican; the seat has been held by Republicans since 1977.