2005 is the 25th anniversary of the founding of Pro Lingua Associates. Only a small percentage of new businesses survive this long, and the list of fine, independent publishing houses that were serving the teachers of English around the world in 1980 has been greatly reduced since then. Although most of them were merged into other companies, many of their books and their distinctive personalities have been lost to our profession. We have survived and flourished, thanks to you, our customers and friends, and we are proud of it.

On anniversaries, a bit of history seems appropriate. In 1980 the five of us associates, Ray Clark, Pat Moran, Mike Jerald, and Elise and Andy Burrows all lived in Brattleboro, Vermont; we had moved here in the 1960's and '70's. What brought us together was that we had all been students and/or faculty members of the Master of Arts in Teaching program at the Experiment's School for International Training (in recent years aka MAT SIT World Learning).

We started working and planning for Pro Lingua in the fall of 1979, not in a garage like Ben & Jerry's but in our living rooms. For two years before that, Ray, Pat, and Andy had been working together as a team developing language teaching materials for the Peace Corps. When that Experiment contract ended, we decided to go into business for ourselves. Our first book was Language Teaching Techniques, published in January, 1980. We kept it in print until 2001. A new, much revised version is in the planning. Our second book was our classic, The ESL Miscellany; in 2005 we are publishing the fourth edition.

We set up our first office in an 1848 farm house in the center of Brattleboro. Ray, our editor, lived in the back. He was literally moonlighting for Pro Lingua while he earned his living first doing special projects for the Experiment working with Haitian refugees and others and then as director of the Experiment's International Students of English programs. Andy put the books together and handled orders during the day. Pat did illustrations and odd jobs. A few years later, Elise came on board to help run the office, answer the phone, take orders, and do the shipping. Her part-time job soon became a very full-time commitment. Ray moved out and Elise and Andy moved into the office with their two children. The last associate to join Pro Lingua was Mike, our first customer, friend, cheer leader, and all around helper. By 1999 we had outgrown our little farm house, and we moved the office into a big space carved out of the third floor of Brattleboro's old Cotton Mill, which for most of its life had been the home of the Dunham Boot Factory. It is now filled with small entrepreneurial businesses, artists' studios, a jazz center, and a circus school - a fascinating mix. Our offices overlook the Connecticut River, specifically over a backwater under which archeologists have found the foundations of Fort Dummer, the first European settlement in Vermont. Just across the river, we see the seasonal colors change on Mount Wantastiquet in New Hampshire. The building is interesting, and this corner of Vermont very beautiful. Teachers are always welcome to visit us; we recommend that you call first.

Today Pat continues teaching in the MAT program. Mike has retired from SIT and moved to Washington where he is doing program evaluation for the Peace Corps, a job which naturally takes him around the world. When he is home in D.C., he represents Pro Lingua in the DC-VA-MD region. Ray, too,has retired from his second stint as director of the SIT MAT program. He now works half time with Pro Lingua and half time with his wife Ayla's food business, Istanbul Kitchen - and from time to time returns to SIT to teach a course. Elise and Andy continue to work full time with the help of her assistant, Cindy Balduf.

Although Pro Lingua has a list of 75-plus titles, you can see that we are still a mom 'n pop micro business at heart.