Tenney, Luman Harris

Dr. Luman H. Tenney served as an American Field Service (AFS) ambulance driver with Section Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) 12 and SSU 3 from January to October 1917.  During that time, he served with French divisions at the front in France, Greece, and Serbia.  He was released from AFS and joined the United States Army as a Lieutenant in the Heavy Artillery when the AFS section to which he was assigned was dissolved upon the entry of the United States into the war.

After the first World War, Tenney graduated from Oberlin College in 1920, from the Western Reserve Medical School in 1929, and completed his psychiatric training at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and Bellevue Hospital in New York City in 1939.  Tenney served in the military in World War II and retired as a captain in the U.S. Navy.  Tenney worked in various medical-related capacities after World War II, including serving as director of the Mental Hygiene Clinic for the state of New Jersey, teaching at Princeton University, and serving as director of the Buncombe County and Western North Carolina Mental Health Clinic.  He was also a member of various professional associations, including the American Psychiatric Association.

Tenney married and had two sons, Dr. James B. Tenney and Dr. Richard L. Tenney.  The Tenney family remained active in AFS after Dr. Luman H. Tenney’s service as an ambulance driver with the organization during the first World War.  Dr. James B. Tenney and his wife Shirley H. Tenney were adult chapter co-presidents of the AFS student exchange program (which was established in 1946) in the 1980s.  The Tenney family also hosted two AFS students (from Turkey and Indonesia), and two grandchildren of Dr. Luman H. Tenney traveled internationally on AFS programs (Barbara Tenney to the Dominican Republic and Carol Tenney to Italy).

Dr. Luman H. Tenney died on March 17, 1970 in Henderson County, North Carolina, at age 72.

[Bio COurtesy of AFS Archives, New York]