George Edward Post (1838-1909)
(Service to SPC 1868-1909)
American missionary, botanist, physician, and educator, Reverend George Edward Post was born on December 17, 1838, in New York. At the age of sixteen, he graduated from the Free Academy, later the College of the City of New York, and received his master's degree three years later. He graduated from New York University Medical College in 1860 and ordained by the Fourth Presbytery of New York in 1861. For two years, he served as a chaplain in the Union Army, and in 1863 the ABCFM chose him to serve in Syria as a Medical Missionary. Stationed in Tripoli, Dr. Post began both medical work and the study of Arabic. He was one of the few to acquire a good command of Arabic as regards to vocabulary, idioms, and pronunciation. He remained in Tripoli for till his health failed, necessitating a visit to the United States. The following year, in 1868, he received his professorship in surgery and botany at the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut. He was an accomplished botanist and inspired architect, among other talents. He wrote widely of the flora of his adopted country, providing a reference that proved valuable for scores of years. Even more noteworthy is the writing he did on the plants of the Bible. He designed both the medical school building and drew plans for a building to house an archeological museum.
Later, Post became one of the leading factors in the organization and development of the medical department. He was instrumental in the official recognition of the Medical School by the Imperial Ottoman authority. He died from pneumonia on September 29, 1909, in his home in Aley and was buried in the Anglo-American Cemetery in Furn al-Shubbak, Beirut.