Beverly Almond was born to a family of privilege, and yet chose a life of service and adventure because she wanted to make a difference in the world. Born near New York City in 1918, she was the oldest of the three daughters of Victor and Elsie Kitchen. At the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor she was working as a medical secretary and enjoying a full social life in New York, but moved to Washington DC because she wanted to be part of the war effort. Her job in intelligence at the Pentagon meant she soon got the chance to work in England and she leapt at it. In late 1943, she was posted to Bletchley Park as the secretary to the head of American military intelligence there, and found herself at the heart of the Brits' "Enigma Secret" - the code-cracking operation that intercepted numerous key Axis powers' communications. She worked there until the fall of 1945.
On the ship traveling to England she had met a young missionary, Harry Almond, bound for Iraq, and they fell in love, were quickly engaged, and then separated for the duration. When they reunited and married after the war, they both knew they wanted to be part of healing the divisions and tragedies they had witnessed during the war. From 1951 on, they both worked with Moral ReArmament/Initiatives of Change. They both spoke Arabic, and many of those years were spent in the Arab world, where they made life-long friends and helped build bridges between Muslims and Christians. They and their daughters, Anne Hamlin and Betsy Lancaster, lived in Beirut from 1964-1971 as part of that work, and the Almonds continued their love of the Middle East and friends there for the rest of their lives, even while living back in the United States in their later years.
Throughout her life, Beverly’s care for people was expressed in both hospitality (especially baking cookies and bread), and in correspondence with friends near and far. She sent birthday cards to a vast number of people and was regularly writing notes and making calls to keep in touch with family and friends. And in her older years she talked about her appreciation of the Five F’s - Faith, Family, Friends, Food and Fun! She lived to be nearly 100 and was sharp-witted and big hearted to the end.
The story of Beverly’s life is told in her biography - Beverly Almond: An Ageless Adventurer - written by her daughter Anne. Beverly's parents, one of her sisters, she and Harry, and their two daughters all worked for many years with Moral-Re-Armament.
