Baghdad College Alumni Association

baghdad college was founded in 1932  by william a. rice, s.j. (who would later become bishop in belize, central america). pope pius xi requested the establishment of a catholic school in baghdad to serve the muslim population there, and the church sent four jesuits to establish the school. one of them was fr. john mifsud, who was of maltese origins. the school originally had four jesuit teachers and 107 students. the school motto was "an iraqi school for iraqi boys".  the school was initially located in ten buildings, located at 11/45 murabba'ah street in baghdad, on the east bank of the tigris river, on 4 acres (1.6 ha) of land in the northern part of the city. father leo guay designed the campus buildings, using iraqi architecture as an influence.  courses were conducted in english. national public radio stated that at the time it was baghdad's "premier high school. soon after its founding the teaching staff included 33 jesuits and 31 iraqi lay teachers. some of the jesuits were flu