In the 1970s William B. Royer, Jr. was the assistant director of the Iran-America Society, a cultural organization dedicated to the promotion of understanding between the two peoples. The Iran America Society, founded in the 1950s, was based in Washington D.C., and had cultural centers in Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashad. The society closed after the Iran-Hostage Crisis in 1979. Royer was one of sixty-six Americans captured by Iranian militants after the seizure of the U. S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Royer was detained in Iran until January 1981, when the hostage crisis ended with the release of the fifty-two remaining captives. Following his liberation, Royer returned home to Houston, Texas.
Sources:
John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=26275 (accessed June 25, 2010).
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum. “The Hostages and the Casualties,” Jimmy Carter Library & Museum, http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/list_of_hostages.phtml (accessed June 25, 2010).
From the guide to the Royer, William B. Jr. Collection 81-012; 81-027; 81-029; 81-065; 81-084., 1979-1981, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
