Royalty was in town this weekend as King Abdullah of Jordan was the best man at the wedding of George Faux '84 in Rollins Chapel on Saturday afternoon.
Abdullah arrived Friday afternoon with an entourage of 50 service men, according to guests who attended the wedding.
Faux first met Abdullah as a roommate at Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass. and the two remained best friends ever since, according to guests who attended the wedding.
Only two undergraduates attended the approximately 200-person reception Friday night in the Daniel Webster room in the Hanover Inn. The reception followed a rehearsal dinner and lasted until about midnight.
Faux is the Phi Delta Alpha corporation president, and invited current Phi Delt president Matt K. Nelson '00 and summer president Gabe Horwitz '01 to the reception Friday night.
"It was impressive. There were about six cop cars and six black sedans with men in suits and sunglasses -- it was out of the movies," Horwitz said.
Nelson said the reception atmosphere was not overwhelmingly influenced by the King's attendance despite the presence of secret service agents.
"He was another guest, and while a few people took pictures with him, for the most part you wouldn't notice he was anyone out of the ordinary," Nelson said.
Horwitz said Abdullah seemed relaxed and just another member of the crowd. He was not even wearing a tie.
"It was a small, intimate reception. People seemed very relaxed and everyone was happy. I was expecting tons of people to be [accompanying] the King, but it was just in one room," Horwitz said.
Briefly meeting the King was a once in a lifetime event, as was being frisked by the secret service, Nelson said.
The wedding ceremony took place on Saturday at 1 p.m. with fewer in attendance than at the reception the night before. Since the bride was Nepalese, this wedding marked the second such ceremony, with the first taking place in Nepal.
According to Nelson's estimates, about half the rooms in the Hanover Inn were booked to accommodate guests and security personnel, and the Abdullah and Faux parties filled the entire Quechee Inn.
According to the two students, this was the second time Abdullah has visited the College. His prior trip was when Faux was enrolled as a student and included a stop at Phi Delt.
Abdullah was educated primarily in the United States and in England. After his schooling at Deerfield, Abdullah entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom and attended Oxford University in 1984. He later studied at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
In addition to the King's extensive experience in the military and as a career army officer, he was Regent of Jordan and represented the Kingdom on international travel.
King Abdullah was crowned on February 7, 1999 a few hours after his father, the late King Hussein, died of cancer.
As current and former presidents of Phi Delt, Nelson and Horwitz said they have been in communication with Faux about house operations and recent Trustee steering committee proceedings.
The event marked a great opportunity to meet new people and to celebrate the marriage of a fraternity alum, Horwitz said.
