(This article originally appeared in the December 18, 1994 edition of The Washington Post)

Revolution by the Book

In Post-Communist Albania, a Tiny Library Speaks Volumes About Hope

By Thomas Goltz

POGRADEC, Albania -- Mary Andre Hunter, age 70, is a librarian of the old school. She does not tolerate noise in her bulding and scolds when a member of the local soccer team drops a box of 50 books on his foot and disturbs tranquility with an instinctive yelp.

"Shhh!" stage-whispers Hunter, looking over bifocal glasses and scowling her stern, librarian-style, "This is a library! No noise!"

"Shhh!" say the other members of the team to the boy holding his foot in pain. "No noise! This is a library!"

Order restored, the team resumes hauling books to Hunter and her staff of three local girls as they go about their almost silent task of scratching out Dewey Decimal System cards for an open-stack, public library of 300,000 books in this town of 20,000 people.

Pogradec (pronounced Pogradetz) might seem to be a strange place to establish what will be the largest public library in the Balkans. Set on the shores of Lake Ohrid, on the Macedonian/Greek/Albanian frontier, it is a dumpy town of unfinished, cinder block buildings alternating with military bunkers that have been turned into public toilets.

But for Mary Hunter and the New England Relief Organization (NEARO), a private organization set up by Albanian-Americans to aid their distant kinsmen, Pogradec is a special town indeed, There are other government and non-government aid organizations who have brought in the usual range of blankets, baby food and Bibles to Albania to assist in difficult -- no mind-boggling -- transition from being an isolated communist encalve to being part of the worlds communtiy again. But NEARO is the only humanitarian group in the country that specializes in libraries. In fact. Pogradec has two libraries, bought whole and shipped to Albania by Peter C. Kole, a native of Pogradec who now lives in Cleveland, Ohio (See photo at right).

"Pogradec region used to be famous for two things, " explains Hunter, during a rare break from her task of cataloguing books. "It had the highest number of immigrants to foreign countries and it had the highest number of bankers of any part of Albania, per capita. Now it will have the highest percentage of books, and thus the highest percentage of free-thinking individuals in the new Albania of today."

Hunter bristles when the NEARO library project is compared with the activities of American missionary groups now sweeping through the country, or even with U.S. government aid.

"It is not charity, she says, "We are family, and we call it sharing."

Mary Hunter is a very self conscious Albanian-American. She is the daughter of an Orthodox Christian, Albanian couple who moved from the nearby village of Zerchisht to Jamestown, NY. She grew up speaking Albanian and rolling borek, a sort of multi-layered cheese or meat wafer that Albanians claim as one of their contributions to world kitchen culture. Her second cousins are the Belushis, as in the actor brothers John and Jim, whose family also came from Zerchisht.

As a group, the Albanians remained the most obscure of all European

migants to the United States for one very good reason: Unlike other "ethnic"

groups such as the Irish, Ukranians or even the Armenians, ties to the

"homeland" were severed for almost 50 years because of the "fundamentalist communism" imposed on the country by its Stalinist dictator, Enver Hoxha.

The symbol of Hoxha's paranoid state are the estimated 1 million bunkers that dot the landscape like so many cement and steel warts, built to defend the country from a long list of perceived enemies: the imperialist Americans and their NATO "lackeys," the Greeks and Italians, Yugoslavia (after Tito's break with Moscow) and the "revisionist" Soviet Union (after its break with Stalinism). A few years before Hoxha's death in 1985, the "backsliding" Chinese joined the Albanian enemies list.

Under Hoxha's regime, listening to foreign broadcasts on the radio was a political offense that landed many in jail. As for possessing books or magazines in foreign languages -- well, that was almost a capital crime.

"My father was a high official in the party and had access to books the common people were not allowed, " a long-haired young man names David told me in a bar in Pogradec. "When my mother was pregnant, my father happened to be reading a book that made a great impression on him and decided to name me after the hero. The authorities demanded to know why he was so infatuated with bourgeois culture. But because my father was a man with connections, he held his ground and won the right to name me the way he wanted."

The name of the author was Charles Dickens; the book was "David Copperfield."

But as elsewhere in the former East, Albania is suffering from what might be called post-communist distress syndrome: the yearning, after the intitial euphoria of freedom from state control, for a return of a little law and order, even if it means restrictions on personal freedom. A mass, illegal immigration (mainly towards Greece) has deposited professors and engineers in jobs as day laborers at salaries far above the norm in Albania. When they return, they bring money with them and find resentment waiting. Many are increasingly afraid of a naive and dangerous ultra-nationalism bred of despair.

Pogradec's answer is books -- all 300,000 of them. In Hunter's library they are everywhere, but mainly on the floor: Chemistry and biology texts are hidden by hundreds of dime romances; fiction by Steinbeck and thrillers by Tom Clancy are intermixed with a ton or two of Readers' Digest condensed novels. Five full sets of encyclopedias and god-knows how many English-to-what language dictionaries lie tumbled and jumbled on the stairs, betwixt and between the shattered cardboard boxes that brought them here. When the books finally get to the shelves, they will be available to a community that used to fear giving their children anything other than a handful odf state-approved names.

"Our agreement with the government -- no, our demand -- is that the library be public and have open shelves," Hunter explains. "It is to be a place for anyone who wants to come and browse around ideas -- and then take home the book or books that he or she wants."

There have been hitches. NEARO first wanted the library set up in the larger regional city of Korcha, but the authorities there did not like the idea of open shelves. So NEARO packed up the boxes and shipped them down the road to Pogradec. One Albanian nespaper likened the idea of putting 300,000 books in the town of 20,000 to building an Olympic stadium in a village. Rumors were afoot that Mary Hunter is part of a dark scheme to sell the books on the sly and get rich.

"You have to get used to this sort of thing," Hunter says. "In a society

where access to books was a privilege of the elite, what else can you expect? The end of restricted access to ideas is the quickest way to end the problem of the "bunker of the mind" that has crippled Albania for more than 40 years."

NEARO -- which has several other library projects in the works -- is not going to allow itself to be intimidated. It has reserved the right to pull the library project from Pogradec if local authorities try to take control of what it insists must be a public project. The prospect that the town might lose its new trove of books is viewed as a disaster by ordinary citizens. A solidarity committee that calls itself the library's board of directors has formed to knock some sense into the heads of the municipal government.

Lorence Nolini is a member. At age 28, Nolini is arguably the most successful businessman in Pogradec -- and he likes to think that his success is a good omen for others. Nolini turned his grandmother's one-room house (which she shared with a cow) into a classy restaurant and bar; grandma is now the unofficial maitre d'. The house specialty is koran, a delicious freshwater salmon unique to Lake Ohrid, which people come from as far away as the capital city of Tirana to eat. Along with other business ventures, Noli expects to gross $100,000 this year -- and is thus a man to contend with when it comes to local politics. And Nolini wants the library.

"The library project is incredibly important for us," he says. "It is not like the other sort of aid that everyone is trying to pump into Albania. It is substantial and it is symbolic. It is exactly what we did not have in the recent past."

Meanwhile, the pile of books on Mary Hunter's upstairs floor grows and shrinks five or 10 times on a given day. The librarians work their way toward the bottom of the batch, only to have the soccer team dump a new load of books on top of the remnants of the last. After five months of labor, Hunter and her team have managed to work their way through more than 20,000 volumes, which now grace the shelves of the only room in the building with any sense of order.

"When I volunteered to lead the library project, I thought it would take maybe a year," Hunter says slipping a few more cards in her card catalogue. "Now it is looking more like five years. But that is all right. I am perfectly willing to spend the rest of my days in Albania. I feel like I have come home.

The scratching of Hunter's pencil is the only noise in the room until the first foreign "client" of the Pogradec library (me) reaches toward a shelf holding a book entitled "Totalitarianism" and stumbles on a small mountain of pulp fiction that happens to be in the way.

Shhh!" Hunter hisses, unable to hide an impish grin behind her professional scowl. "Can't you see this is a library?"

BORN IN THE DISTRICT OF POGRADEC, ALBANIA, FEBRUARY 10, 1937 AND ARRIVED WITH MY MOTHER, ATHINA, AUGUST 4, 1938, IN CLEVELAND, OHIO. MY EDUCATION WAS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, GRADUATED FROM WEST TECH. HIGH SCHOOL, WITH A MAJOR IN COLLEGE PREPARATORY. LATER ATTENDED AND GRADUATED FROM IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY WITH MAJOR EMPHASIS IN ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE. WORKED IN VARIOUS ACCOUNTING POSITIONS AND LATER BECAME FINANCIAL CONTROLLER. IN 1978, PURCHASED A MANUFACTURING CO., FARCO, LOCATED IN ELYRIA, OHIO AND IN 1981 MOVED THE COMPANY TO CLEVELAND, OHIO AND STARTED ANOTHER COMPANY, PARAMOUNT METAL PRODUCTS THAT MANUFACTURED STEEL AUTOMOBILE SEAT FRAMES. SEVERAL YEARS LATER, I PURCHASED VANCO PRODUCTS, ANCHOR TEMPLATE DIE, AND ECONO- TOOL AND DIE. ALL THESE COMPANIES WERE LOCATED IN THREE SEPARATE BUILDINGS. TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE APPROXIMATELY 350,000 SQUARE FEET WITH EMPLOYMENT OF 300 PERSONNEL AT 1200 WEST 58TH STREET, CLEVELAND, OHIO. IN SEPTEMBER 1990, ALONG WITH OTHER ALBANIAN AMERICANS FROM THE NEW ENGLAND AREA RETURNED TO ALBANIA AND TOURED THE COUNTRY AND VISITED MANY CITIES AND THEN VISITED MY BIRTHPLACE, POGRADEC. I MET WITH ALL MY COUSINS AND HAD A HUGE FAMILY REUNION. STAYED IN ALBANIA A TOTAL OF 23 DAYS. LATER, RETURNED HOME TO CLEVELAND AND ALBANIA NEVER LEFT MY MIND. I IMMEDIATELY SENT MANY BOXES OF BASIC ITEMS SUCH AS FOOD AND CLOTHES. OTHER MEMBERS OF THE TOUR FORMED N.E.A.R.O., THE NEW ENGLAND ALBANIAN RELIEF ORGANIZATION. I IMMEDIATELY VOLUNTEERED AND BECAME A DIRECTOR WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COLLECTING HUMANITARIAN AID FROM EVERYONE WEST OF JAMESTOWN, N.Y. TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. THE MASSACHUSETTS WAREHOUSE WOULD FOCUS ON THE NEW ENGLAND STATES, NEW YORK CITY, NEW JERSEY AND THE PHILADELPHIA AREA. CLEVELAND WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYONE ELSE. DURING THE LAST NINE YEARS, HUNDRED OF THOUSANDS OF BOOKS, HUNDREDS OF HOSPITAL BEDS, GURNEYS, MISC. DENTAL EQUIPMENT AND HOSPITAL SUPPLIES, SCHOOL TABLES, CHAIRS, DESKS, COMPUTERS, BLACKBOARDS, CHALK AND ONE (1) DODGE PICK -UP TRUCK WERE SHIPPED FROM THE CLEVELAND WAREHOUSE. WHEN THE AMBASSADOR ROLAND BIMO MOVED INTO HIS NEW OFFICE; DESKS, CHAIRS, FAX COPY MACHINES, AND TWO (2) COMPUTERS WERE DONATED TO THE NEW OFFICES OF THE ALBANIAN EMBASSY DURING AMBASSADOR ROLAND BIMO’S TENURE. IN ADDITION, BOXES OF OFFICE SUPPLIES WERE ALSO SHIPPED FROM CLEVELAND, OHIO TO WASHINGTON D.C. TO HELP THE NEW AMBASSADOR BEGIN HIS NEW DUTIES. TWO LIBRARIES WERE ESTABLISHED BY N.E.A.R.O., ONE IN POGRADEC, AND THE OTHER IN KORCE, ALBANIA. THOUSANDS OF BOOKS ARE STILL BEING SHIPPED TO THE NEWEST LIBRARY LOCATED IN KORCE, ALBANIA, AND THE PERSONNEL ARE PAID FROM THE CLEVELAND OFFICE. IN ADDITION, POTS, PANS AND OTHER MISC. COOKING UTENSILS WERE SHIPPED TO THE CHILDREN’S ORPHANAGES LOCATED THROUGHOUT ALBANIA. ALSO, MANY PACKAGES OF FOOD AND CLOTHES WERE SHIPPED TO VARIOUS NURSING HOMES. DURING THE FALL OF 1996, I WAS INDUCTED INTO MY HIGH SCHOOL’S HALL OF FAME. LATER IN OCTOBER 1998, I WAS AWARDED A MEDAL AS THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS FOR 1998 FROM MY UNIVERSITY, IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY.

Historical Survey

Albania has been inhabited since ancient times. The prehistoric evidence discovered dates back to the period of the middle and late paleolithic, 100,000 - 10,000 years ago. There is also evidence of a number of settlements with a rich culture in the neolithic times, 6,000 - 2000 vears before Christ.

Albanians are immediate descendants of the Illyrians. Illyrians were formed as an indigenous ethnos on the basis of an even more ancient population, identified with the Pellasgos, who merged with the Indo-European population who, settled in the Balkan Peninsula at the end of the Neolithis and the beginning of the Bronze Age. Illyria stretched over the western part of the Balkan, in the north as far as the banks of the Sava and Danube, in the east to, the Morava and Vardar Rivers, which separated it from the Thrace, and in the south and southeast to, the Pindi Mountain Range, which separated it from the Greeks and Macedonians. The name Illyr first referred only to the southern regions, and later came to describe the territories in all of the western Balkan. Illyrians are mentioned by Herodotus in written resources dating from the 5th century before Christ. Detached Illyrian settlements are found on the furthermost coast of the Adriatic (tribes of Mesape, Japige), in Greece and as far as Asia Minor, Troja (the Dardans mentioned in IIomer's epics).

By the end of the 5"' century before Christ, Illvrians entered the road of slave-ownership order and civillan life. Two centuries before this, however, Greek settlements had been set up on the Albanian coast and their inhabitants had merged with the indigenous Illyrians. The largest settlements were Epidamn, Dyrrah, Apolliana, Buthrint, Schodra, Lissus.

In the 4'1' and 3~'' centuries before Christ, the Illyrian state was strengthened by such outstanding figures as Kings Bardhyl, Agron, Teuta, Gent, Monun and Mytyl. The Illyrian state fought against Roman invasion until 168 BC, when Rome conquered Illyria and spread its culture. With the division of the Roman Empire (AD 395) Illyria became part of the Byzantine Empire. Its borders were invaded by the Goths and Havars among other marauding tribes. In the course of the 4th - 7th centuries, the Slavs invaded parts of the north and east Illvria. In spite ~,f the losses they incurred, the compact population of the provinces of Epirus, Prevalitania and Dardania (present Kosovo) managed to cope with the Slav invasion. In the 6th and 7th centuries, as a result of the influence of the cultures of old Illyrians and other cultures, there occurred a new process: the creation of a population now recognized by the new ethnical name of Arber and of the culture of early Albanians. At various times during the Middle Ages, Albania was under the Byzantine as well as Bulgarian, Venetian, Norman, Anjuin and Serb rule.

In 1272 Charles the First of Anju invaded Durres and proclaimed the Kingdom of Arberia. The first Medieval Albanian state, called the State of Arber with Kruja as its capital, was established in the 13th century. In the 14''' century we observe the establishment of state Albanian principalities of Balshaj, Topiaj, Muzakaj, Arianitas, Zenebishta, Shpataj, etc. In the 15th century, the national hero of Albania, George Castriot Scanderbeg (1405-1468) managed to unite the forces of the country into a single state. For 25 years Scanderbeg fought with unprecedented courage against the Turkish conquest. Ten years following his death, Albania became part of the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, two large Pashallek districts were created in the framework of this Empire. The Pashallek of Bushatilinj in the north and the Pashallek of Ali Pashe Tepelena in the south.

The 19th century was the century of the National Revival of Albania. In 1878 the Albanian League of Prizren was established with self-governing state attributes and to face attacks by Serb invaders.

On November 28, 1912, Albania was proclaimed an independent state and the national flag was hoisted by Ismail Qemali in Vlora. From 1912 to date Albanian state has continuously been a member of the constellation of world countries. From 1928 to 1939 the Albanian state was a monarchy with Zog the First as its king.

On April 7, 1939, fascist Italy invaded Albania. The great anti-fascist national liberation war thus started. Albanian people ranked themselves at the side of the anti-fascist coalition along with the USA, Britain and the USSR.

On November 29, 1944, the partisan anti-fascist forces liberated Albania. The new communist regime established a single party rule and in the course of 50 years it undertook considerable developments in the field of agriculture, industry popular education, infringing, however, human rights and freedoms.

In 1991 the communist regime was toppled and a democratic pluralist regime was established. Now Albania is a parliamentary republic. It has signed the main documents to become member of European institutions such as the Helsinki and Paris Charters and that of Partnership for Peace with NATO.

In respect of the political historv of Albanians, it should be stressed that in 1913 the Great Powers of Europe divided the Albanian nation into two parts. From that year, called black by Albanians, Kosovo, half of the nation (3 million Albanians), has remained under Serb rule.

Pogradec is a resort town located in the eastern part of the country at the south end of Ohrid Lake, overlooking Serbia.

• How is travel to Albania?
  
Presently, there are several major European airlines servicing Albania from North American and European cities, including Alitalia, Swissair, Olympic, Malev and Balkan Airlines. There are various ways to reach Albania by sea. Travel by private motorcars in Albania is still not recommended due to current road conditions. At the present time, access to Albania can be made overland at various border crossings in Greece and the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia.

• What type of electrical power is used in Albania?
  
  
The electrical service is at 220 volts. Adapters and transformers are available as American plugs do not fit in Albanian outlets.

Tirana ist die Hauptstadt der Republik Albanien. Sie ist das wirtschaftliche, kulturelle und politische Zentrum des Landes. Die Hauptstadt besitzt Universitäten, Museen, einen internationalen Flughafen und vielfältige kulturelle Einrichtungen.

Die Stadt liegt am Fuße des Dajti-Berges am Übergang von der Ebene in hügelige Landschaft auf 110 müA. Bis zur Küste der Adria sind es etwa 30 Kilometer. Im Süden und Westen wird Tirana von Hügeln umgeben, die mit dem Dajti einen grünen Gürtel um die Stadt bilden. Im Nordwesten öffnet sich eine Ebene. Am nördlichen Stadtrand verläuft der Fluss Tirana (Lumi i Tiranës), einer der Oberläufe des Flusses Ishëm. Einige Kilometer südlich fließt der Erzen an Tirana vorbei. Das Stadtzentrum wird vom Flüsschen Lana durchquert. Ein kleiner künstlicher See befindet sich im Großen Erholungspark am Südrand der Innenstadt. Quelle: wikipedia.de

Sheraton Tirana Hotel and Towers - Tiranë

The Sheraton Tirana Hotel & Towers is the first and only 5-star hotel in Albania and is located in the heart of Tirana, close to the city's main shopping and entertainment centre and near numerous embassies and business venues.

Guests will have the opportunity to enjoy a wide choice of amenities ranging from sport and wellness to conference and banqueting facilities. A small pool is also available for your children's fun.

Two restaurants and a piano bar offer selected food and you can choose to dine in an elegant or casual ambience, according to your daily mood!

The hotel offers single, double, twin deluxe rooms and junior suites, featuring private bathroom with hairdryer.

The rooms are furthermore equipped with individually controlled air conditioning, satellite and Pay TV, mini bar, safe, Internet connection and direct dial telephone.

Rooms for disabled guests and non smokers are also available.

• Direct dial phone
• Facilities for disabled people
• Hairdryer in room
• Heating

• High speed Internet connection
• Individually controlled air conditioning
• Mini bar
• Non-smoking rooms available upon request

• Pay TV
• Safe
• Satellite TV

Hotel Mondial, Tirana

Lage: Das luxuriöse 4 Sterne Hotel Mondial eröffnet 1998, liegt ca. 1000 m von Stadtzentrum enfernt und ist somit ein idealer Ausgangspunkt für Geschäfts- und Städtereisende.

Zimmer: Das Hotel verfügt 28 moderne Zimmer, 6 Suiten (50 m2) und Minisuiten. Die Zimmer sind modern ausgestattet mit Klimaanlage, TV, Telefon, Balkon, Minibar und Badezimmer mit Dusche.

Service: Das Restaurant serviert albanische und italienische Gerichte. Das Hotel verfügt einen Konferenzraum, einen Bar und ein Parkplatz.

Lage: Das 3 Sterne Hotel New York liegt in dem Ort “Das Kalte Wasser” in Vlora nur weniger Metern vom Meer entfernt.

Zimmer: Das Hotel verfügt über 50 moderne Zimmer mit dem Blick auf das Meer und aufs Wald. Die Zimmer sind modern ausgestattet mit Klimaanlage, TV, Telefon, Balkon, Minibar und Badezimmer mit Dusche.

Service: Das Restaturant mit einer Kapazität von 150 Plätzen serviert nationale und internationale Gerichte. Das Hotel verfügt Konferenzräume, Pool, privaten Strand und Parkplätze.

The philanthropic efforts on the part of Mr. Peter Kole, the President and owner of his own company in Cleveland, Ohio, have resulted in most of the humanitarian aid provided to libraries and hospitals described in this section of the web site.

Many people in a variety of forums and publications have recognized this work on behalf of the people of Albania. Below are pictures of dignitaries whose help is appreciated as well as links to the full text of articles documenting Mr. Kole's generous humanitarian efforts.

Recognition set At Homecoming POCATELLO - The winners Of the three awards given traditionally at Homecoming by the Idaho State University Alumni Association will be honored Oct. 16. Distinguished Alumnus: Peter C Kole, William J. Bartz Service Award: Donald L. "Pappy" Papenberg, ISU Janet C. Anderson, Pocatello. The presentations are a highlight of the President's Alumni Recognition Dinner. It is scheduled Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Cavanaughs Hotel. For tickets, call 208---6-3755 before Oct. 5. The cost is $23. Distinguished Alumnus spearheads creation of library in Albania By Glenn Alford POCATELLO- A plaque in the Hall of Fame at West Technical High School in Cleveland, Ohio, Reads, "Peter C. Kole, Class of January, 1955 Industrialist- CEO_ Humanitarian." For all those reasons, Kole is the 1998 winner of the Idaho State University Distinguished Alumnus Award. The Distinguished Alumnus Award is ISU's highest award. It recognizes exemplary professional and/or personal contributions resulting in national or international visibility, including contributions to chosen career/profession, awards and special recognition received, and community and civic involvement. A '63 graduate of Idaho State University with a BBA degree in business and finance, Kole is president and owner of one of the largest manufacturing firms in Cleveland, but that is only part of the reason he is being honored. In large part through his efforts as chair of book collections for the New England Albanian Relief Organization (NEARO), his hometown of Pogradec (pronounced Pogradetz), Albania, has a library with more than 300,00 volumes. Pogradec has a population of only 30,000 but people from throughout Albania travel there to study and check out books in what has been described as the only American open-stack library in Europe. NEARO is the only U. S. humanitarian organization to establish a library and learning center in a former communist country. The library was dedicated on June 17, 1995. Kole was one of the speakers at the dedication. Kole also has had books shipped to Albania's elementary and high schools and universities, and he has collected hospital and dental equipment for Albania. Before 1985, owning books or magazines in a foreign language could be a capital crime under Albania's totalitarian government. The Cleveland, Ohio, Public Library tore down an annex to make space for a new building, and all of its books could not be stored. Kole got the 100,000 discards, plus 100,000 from Cleveland's Cuyahoga County Public Library. In addition, 50,000 books were collected in Worcester, Mass., and 50,000 came from other sources. Rand McNally contributed 7,000 atlases. His company, Paramount Metal Products (PMP), employs 300 and has five divisions: Paramount Seating, Paramount Stamping and Welding, Anchor Special Machines, Anchor Paramount Seating, Paramount Stamping and Welding, Anchor Special Machines, Anchor Template/Dye, and Vanco Products. PMP won Cleveland's 1992 Community Improvement Award for it efforts "to enhance local neighborhoods through reinvestment, job creation, and other improvements to the community." Kola elected to attend ISU through a freak circumstance. Most of his high school friends attended large colleges in Ohio, but he looked through a number of college catalogues and thought ISU looked "interesting". "Peter C. Kole is an outstanding example of a businessman our students can emulate and admire for both his business success and community involvement," Bill Stratton, dean of ISU's College of Business, said. " In addition to his library project in his home country of Albania, Peter is talking to experts in Idaho about the potential for raising trout there as a means of helping his many relatives attain a better livelihood. The College of Business is very proud to claim Peter as one of our graduates. He is most worthy of being name Distinguished Alumnus." Although Kole's home is far from Pocatello, he continues to be a friend of ISU and serve it well. He has endowed three scholarships at ISU with gifts totaling $150,000. In 1994, Kole endowed the Frank Seelye-Peter C. Kole Scholarship with a gift of $50,000. The scholarship honors the memory of Frank Seelye, longtime ISU business professor and dean of the College of Business from 1964 to 1968. It is awarded to a non- traditional student in the College of Business with preference given to children of single parents. The Klime and Athina Kole Memorial Scholarship was created to honor his parents with a gift of $50,000, and it is awarded with the same criteria as the Seelye-Kole Scholarship The Peter Kole Scholarship, also created with a gift of $50,000, is awarded to a student in the College of Business. Glenn Alford is with ISU University Relations.

Under the iron-fisted rule of the late dictator Enver Hoxha, an Albanian caught with a foreign book or magazine was arrested and sent to prison or executed. One can only imagine what the dictator would think if he were alive today to see a 300,000-book English-language library in his country, in the city of Pogradec, with more libraries planned. Much of the credit for the library, reported to be one of the largest public English-language book repositories in Eastern and Central Europe, goes to Peter C. Kole, a Cleveland industrialist of Albanian birth. Kole, 57, said his parents brought him to the United States when he was 1 year old. He spent his life becoming an American, until he went to Albania in 1990 and saw the terrible poverty and suffering there. "Then I knew I had to get involved in helping Albanians as an Albanian-American," he said. Kole has spent much of his free time in the last 4 ½ years helping to accumulate the books for shipment to Albania, one of the poorest and most oppressed countries in Europe. The books were stored in one of his warehouses in Cleveland until it was time for shipment. The U.S. Defense Department paid most of the shipping cost, but some private money also was raised. Kole also collected hospital and dental equipment to send to his former country. He said he really got lucky when the Cleveland Public Library was tearing down the Business and Science Annex at E. 6th St. and Superior Ave. to make way for a new building. He said library officials could not store all the books and gave him the discards. "We got 100,000 books from the Cleveland Public library, 100,000 from the Cuyahoga County Public Library and 50,000 books collected in Worcester, Mass.," Kole said. An additional 50,000 were collected from other sources. Some books in both Cleveland and Worcester were bought, but most were donated to the non-profit New England Albanian Relief Organization, of which Kole is a director and chairman of the book collection. To make sure the Pogradec library is properly established, the New England Albanian Relief organization hired Mary Hunter, 70, a retired librarian from Dallas, to catalog the books and run the library, Kole said. Hunter, of Albanian ancestry, was to stay a year, but she has become so involved that she plans to devote the rest of her life to helping Albania establish libraries, Kole said. The Pogradec library takes up three rooms in a government donated building of 15 rooms. Eventually the building will be filled with books that now wait in boxes to be cataloged and shelved. Kole said Albania, with a population of 3.3 million, is struggling to catch up with modern society. "Communism and dictator Hoxha kept Albania isolated from the rest of the world for 50 years," he said. Hoxha died in 1985. Hoxha crazily spent the country's finances on 1 million cement bunkers to defend the country. They have since been converted to public toilets. Now, Albanians are rushing to learn English so they can talk with Americans and use the new libraries, which also are being set up in Korce and Vlora and other cities as books become available. Many of the books from Cleveland are on business, science and medicine. Kole said these are the most important for Albanians because they need to start businesses and provide better health care. Kole, meanwhile, could serve as a prime example of industriousness. His office sits atop the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. factory at 1200 W. 58th St. where he operates the Paramount Stamping & Welding Co. The business employs 300 and makes seats for General Motors Corp. and stampings for other industries. His office overlooks Edgewater Park, where he played as a child. He grew up only a few blocks from the plant, where his father, Klime, and an uncle once worked. Kole started working at 13, bagging groceries in a supermarket. He graduated from West Technical High School and went off to study accounting at Idaho State University. He worked for the former Republic Steel Co. and other companies before striking out on his own to start his companies 17 years ago. He said he believes Albanians will follow the same capitalistic principles as he has, with a little financial boost from the United States.

POCATELLO- A plaque in the Hall of Fame at West Technical High School in Cleveland, Ohio, reads "Peter C. Kole, Class of January, 1955, Industrialist-CEO_ Humanitarian." For al those reason, Kole is the 1998 winner of the Idaho State University Distinguished Alumnus Award. The Distinguished Alumnus Award is ISU's highest award. It recognizes exemplary professional and/or personal contributions resulting in national or international visibly, including contributions to chosen career/profession, awards and special recognition received, and community and civic involvement. A 1963 graduate of Idaho State University with a BBA degree in business and finance, Kole is president and owner of one of the largest manufacturing firms in Cleveland, but that is only part of the reasons he is being honored. In large part through his efforts as chair of book collections for the New England Albanian Relief Organization (NEARO), his hometown of Pogradec (pronounced Pogradetz), Albania, has a library with more than 300,000 volumes. Pogradec has a population of only 30,000, but people from throughout Albania travel there to study and check out books in what has been described as the only American open-stack in Europe. NEARO is the only U. S. humanitarian group specializing in libraries and the only humanitarian organization to establish a library and learning center in a former communist country. The library was dedicated on June 17, l995. Kole was one of the speakers at the dedication. Kole also has had books shipped to Albania's elementary and high schools and universities, and he has collected hospital and dental equipment for Albania. Before 1985, owning books or magazines in a foreign language could be a capital crime under Albania's totalitarian government. The Cleveland, Ohio, Public Library tore down an annex to make space for a new building, and all of its books could not be stored. Kole got the 100,00 discards, plus 100,000 from the Cleveland's Cuyahoga County Public Library. In addition, 50,000 books were collected in Worcester, Mass., and 50,000 came from other sources. Rand McNally contributed 7,000 atlases. Kole was brought by his parents to the United States when he was a year old. He returned to Albania in 1990 and saw the poverty there. When he came back to the United States, he accumulated the books and stored them in one of his Cleveland warehouses until shipment. His company, Paramount Metal Products (PMP), employs 300 and has five divisions: Paramount Seating, Paramount Stamping and Welding, Anchor Special Machines, Anchor Paramount Seating, Paramount Stamping and Welding, Anchor Special Machines, Anchor Template/Dye, and Vanco Products. PMP won Cleveland's 1992 Community Improvement Award for its efforts " to enhance local neighborhoods through reinvestment, job creation, and other improvements to the community." Kole elected to attend ISU through a freak circumstance. Most of his high school friends attended large colleges in Ohio, but he looked through a number of college catalogues and thought ISU looked "interesting." "Peter C. Kole is an outstanding example of a businessman our students can emulate and admire for both is business success and community involvement," Bill Stratton, dean of ISU's College of Business, said. "In addition to his library project in his home country of Albania, Peter is talking to experts in Idaho about the potential for raising trout there as a means of helping his many relatives attain a better livelihood. The college of Business is very proud to claim Peter as one of our graduates. He is most worthy of being named Distinguished Alumnus." Although Kole's home is far from Pocatello, he continues to be a friend of ISU and sere it well. He has endowed three scholarships at ISU with gifts totaling $150,000. In 1994, Kole endowed the Frank Seelye-Peter C. Kole Scholarship with a gift of $50,000. The scholarship honors the memory o Frank Seelye, longtime ISU business professor and the dean of the College in Business from 1964 to 1968. It is awarded to a non-traditional student in the College of Business with preference given to children of single parents. The Klime and Athina Kole Memorial Scholarship was created to honor his parents with a gift of $ 50,000 and it is awarded with the same criteria as the Seelye-Kole Scholarship. The Peter Kole Scholarship, also created with a gift of $50,000, is awarded to a student in the College of Business. Glenn Afford is with ISU University Relations.