In Memoriam

Ali Ghandour was born in Beirut in 1931 and passed away there on August 29 at the age of 89. Appointed to the Board of Trustees in 1979, Ghandour was made emeritus in 2008. His sharp intellect, business acumen, generous philanthropy, and deep concern for AUB helped steer the university from the fragile civil war years to decades of robust recovery and growth.

A 1950 graduate of the International College (IC), which was then AUB’s college preparatory school, Ghandour spent his freshman year at AUB before moving to New York University’s Academy of Aeronautics, where he earned a BS degree in aeronautical engineering in 1954. He began his professional life as an engineer and quickly ascended to top leadership positions. Working with the Arida family to establish Lebanese International Airways, Ghandour was LIA’s chief engineer from 1956–61. Political pressures in Lebanon eventually led him to Jordan, where King Hussein asked him to help establish an airline. In 1963, Ghandour cofounded Royal Jordanian Airways (formerly known as Alia), where he served for many years as chairman and president. He also served as the civil aviation, critical air transport, and tourism adviser to King Hussein. Ghandour participated in the founding of several airlines and organizations, including Royal Wings and Arab Wings (Jordan), Arab Air Cargo, the Royal Jordanian Academy of Aeronautics in Amman, Arab Wings Amman, the Royal Jordanian Falcons, Sierra Leone Airline, and Jet Airways, India, where he was also a board member. His other board and leadership positions included chairman of the Teybet Zaman resorts in Petra, Jordan, founding chairman of the Arab Studies program at Georgetown University, co-chairman of Aviation Pioneers and Consultants in Lebanon, and president of ARAM Trading and Technology. He had a wide range of philanthropic interests and served on the boards of Reaching Hearts for Kids, the Royal Society of Fine Arts, the Royal Endowment for Culture and Education in Amman, the American Center of Oriental Research, the King Hussein Foundation, and the World Aerospace Foundation Organization.

Among his many awards are Grand Cordon of the Order of Al Nahda of Jordan; Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver with Sash for service to the Republic of Austria; Tanda Kehormatan, Indonesia; Commandeur de l’Ordre national du Mérite de la Legion d’honneur, France; Commendatore dell’Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana, Italy; the National Order of the Cedars, Lebanon; the 2014 WAAAUB Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award; and the shield of the International College. At AUB he established the Ali Ghandour Endowed Scholarship and the Ali Ghandour Reading Room at Jafet Library. He is a founder of the AUB Zaki Nassif Music Program and a cofounder of the AUB President’s Club. In late 2019, Ghandour’s family honored him by establishing the Ali Ghandour Center for Leadership, Diversity, and Civic Engagement at IC. He is survived by his wife Iltaf; his five children Raghida, Asma, Fadi, Amal, and Iman; five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Raja Ghandour (BA ’60). Born in Aynab, Lebanon, on August 16, 1934, Ghandour died of lung cancer in Montreal, Canada, on March 4, 2020. Following graduate studies in the library sciences at McGill University, she enjoyed a long career in a field greatly impacted by technology and digitalization. Ghandour helped establish McGill’s undergraduate library, developed job descriptions for all positions in the university system, sat on a parliamentary board to computerize university libraries throughout Quebec, and finally, headed McGill’s prestigious Library of the Institute of Islamic Studies. Upon an early retirement, she went on to become a docent at the Museum of Fine Arts. At McGill, she had been reunited with fellow alumnus Andre Dirlik (BA ’61). They married and celebrated their sixty years together by dedicating a bench in front of Jafet Library where they first met as students in 1958. Ghandour was known for providing the perfect Arabic proverb to suit any occasion or circumstance. While at work she proved to be a modern woman. In her home, she retained the traditions which she cherished. Her husband and friends applauded her
“conscious schizophrenia.” She will be greatly missed.

Raffy Hovanessian (BS ’58, MD ’62). Born in Jerusalem, Hovanessian passed away in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on May 27, 2020. While a student at AUB, he founded the still active Armenian University Students’ Association of Beirut. He was also a founder of WAAAUB’s Midwest Chapter. Hovanessian continued his medical education in internal medicine and gastroenterology in New Jersey and later at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. During the Vietnam War era he served as a major in the US Army and as chief of staff of the Ireland Army Community Hospital in Fort Knox, Kentucky. He and his wife, Vicki Shoghag, then settled in Northwest Indiana near Chicago, where Hovanessian established a successful private practice. A fellow trustee and member of the Board of Directors of the Armenian Assembly of America (1986–88), Hovanessian served in leading roles in American and Armenian Medical and Benevolent organizations. He established continuing medical education in Armenia, Javakhk, and Artsakh, and he helped establish the Asian American Medical Society in Merrillville, Indiana. A distinguished physician, community leader, and philanthropist, Hovanessian was the recipient of several awards including the Ellis Island award and the NAACP National Award. He received a citation for exemplary leadership and service in the United States Congressional Record in 1994. The Armenian American Health Professional Society honored him as Ambassador to Humanity and Medicine in 2014. He is survived by his wife, Vicki; their children Armen, Ani, and Aileen; and seven grandchildren.

Mary Markley Roberts Craighill (MA ’62). Born in Shanghai, China, to Episcopal Church missionaries, Craighill passed away in Lexington, Virginia, on July 25, 2020, at the age of 84. Through extensive Princeton University affiliations and work in Beirut teaching at AUB and at what is now called the Lebanese American University, Craighill and her family had close generational ties to the Dodge and the Kerr families. After earning her bachelor’s at Swarthmore College and her master’s degree in history at AUB, Craighill married her husband, Peyton, and joined their team ministry in Tainan, Taiwan, first as a couple and then with their two children. Upon returning to the US in the late 1970s, she nurtured a growing interest in lay ministry and Christian education, first in Princeton, then in Sewanee, Tennessee, as the family moved, and then in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where Craighill served as the director of Christian education at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr before joining the staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania as the Director of Lay Ministry. In retirement she and her husband never ceased their world travels off the beaten path. They returned to Taiwan for a two-year ministry at St. James Church in Taichung, then settled back in Pennsylvania before moving to a retirement community in Virginia. Craighill is survived by her brother Markley Roberts, her children Cecily Craighill Davis and Peyton Craighill, and a granddaughter.

Munir F. Nasr (BS ’61, MD ’65). Born in Hammana, Lebanon in 1940, Nasr passed away on March 17, 2020, in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated from AUB with high distinction and membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at AUBMC, followed by a fellowship at the University of Iowa. He then joined the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, for two years before returning to AUB, where he pioneered the practice of gynecologic oncology. From 1973–86, Nasr provided high quality care to countless women irrespective of their ability to pay. In 1986, he moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where he joined the faculty of Eastern Virginia Medical School and later Virginia Oncology Associates. Known as an excellent surgeon and a compassionate physician, Nasr was also recognized as an exceptional teacher, mentor, counselor, friend, and pillar of the Lebanese-American community. He trained generations of physicians who carry his legacy around the world. Dr. Nasr is survived by his wife of 45 years, Annie Nasr, his son Dr. Nadim Nasr, two grandchildren, and numerous family members in the United States and Lebanon.

Leila Tai (BA ’65; student name, Chahrouri). Tai passed away on April 2, 2020, at the age of 77, following a ten-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. After earning her degree in art at AUB, she received an MA in art education with a specialty in metal work and jewelry at the University of Wisconsin. She then moved to New York, where she studied with top designers at Tiffany & Co. and Bulgari. Known for her work with plique-à-jour enamels, metals, and gems, Tai received the grand prize in the American Jewelry Design Council’s New Talent Contest in 2009. Though not a new designer, the Council felt compelled to acknowledge her extraordinary body of work. Tai designed fine jewelry pieces for Van Cleef & Arpels and Jean Viteau, and fashion jewelry for Trifari, Monet, and Liz Claiborne. Throughout her life, she drew creative inspiration from nature, and her exquisite floral designs and renderings of beetles, dragonflies, and butterflies were widely admired. Tai taught at the Parsons School of Design, the Pratt Institute, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and at workshops and jewelry academies nationwide. She is survived by her husband, Peter Shenkin, and brother Samir Chahrouri.

Ann Hutchinson Gordon (MA ’67). Born in Chicago in 1928, Gordon died in Dayton, Ohio, on October 12, 2020, of natural causes. She earned a BA in English from Stanford University in 1950 and worked in New York City for two years before moving to Beirut in 1953. The following year in the small northern village of Jebrayel, she married David Crockett Gordon, a long-time member of the AUB History Department. Ann Gordon taught as an instructor in the English Department from 1965–1975. Under the supervision of Professor Bernard Blackstone, she earned an MA in 1967, with a thesis on the poetry of T. S. Eliot. Her son, Matthew, was born in 1957, her daughter, Victoria, in 1959. The family departed Lebanon, with great sadness, in 1975 shortly after the onset of the civil war, living first in Princeton, New Jersey, then in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Gordon, a fierce tennis player and great reader of modern fiction, especially William Faulkner, sustained long friendships with a wide circle of people over many years. Smart, funny, energetic, and perpetually upbeat, she will be sorely missed. She is predeceased by her second husband Eugene Aleinikoff (d. 2019), and survived by her son Matthew, his wife and their two children, five step-children, and several grandchildren.

Mohammad Wehbi (BS ’91, MD ’96) was born on December 8, 1972 in Beirut, and passed away on November 12, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. After AUB, Wehbi interned and completed his residency at Atlanta Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was named intern of the year, outstanding chief resident, and attending physician of the year. Following a gastroenterology fellowship at Emory University, he began his career as a GI physician based mainly at the VA hospital. At Emory he rose through the ranks to Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Program Director for the GI fellowship program while serving as Chief of gastroenterology at the VA hospital. During his tenure at the VA and Emory, Wehbi was continually recognized for excellence in patient care and dedication to his craft. Among his awards are the VA’s prestigious HeRO award, the Golden Apple teaching award, and the Fellows’ Recognition award from the division of digestive diseases. An active member of academia and of the American Gastroenterology Society, Wehbe published in refereed journals and presented at national conferences. In 2014, he joined Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates, the largest GI private practice group in the state and one of the largest in the country. Wehbe served as president of the WAAAUB Atlanta Chapter from 2010-13 and as vice president from 2006-10, as president of the Atlanta Chapter of the National Arab American Medical Association (NAAMA), and on the Alif Institute Board of Directors. A devoted father to his daughters Laila and Sophie, Wehbe is also survived by his parents, Abdul-Hussein and Khairieh Wehbe, and his siblings Izzat, Sawsan, Alia, and Hassan. He will be greatly missed.

Mary Rowland Robinson was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1927 and passed away on March 30, 2020, in Durham, North Carolina, at the age of 92. She earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University and a master’s degree in education from Columbia University. The award of a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Germany ignited her lifelong passion for international travel. In 1981, Robinson was selected by the US State Department and the American Association of University Women to participate in an exchange with Sierra Leone. She had a long successful career in higher education administration at various universities including AUB, Duke, West Virginia, Oregon State, Eastern Washington, and Western Washington. Appointed as the first Dean of Women at AUB in 1960, her steadfast advocacy ​for women during her near-decade-
long tenure resulted in substantial progress toward the university’s goal of fostering successful, independent female students. A staunch believer in the values of volunteerism, Robinson was a dedicated volunteer at the United Way and at the YWCA from Beirut, Lebanon, to Bellingham, Washington, where she served as a board member. In 2016, she was honored as a “History Maker” at AUB’s 150th anniversary celebration at the United Nations. She spent her final years in Durham joining the Congregation of Duke University Chapel, and enjoying lectures, opera, parties, and bridge games. Her trailblazing support of women, infinite curiosity, and joie de vivre continue to inspire and encourage her many devoted friends, nieces, and nephews.

“It was thrilling to be a student at AUB in the 1970s: world-class faculty, international and politically engaged students, and the chance to live in Beirut, a fascinating city,” remembers Cynthia Myntti, former and founding director of the Neighborhood Initiative and FHS professor of public health practice, 2010-17. “The experience profoundly affected my life.” Yet it was also a bit challenging: “There was no funding available for American graduate students, so I had to take out a bank loan and work while I was a student to pay for my room and board.”

It was that experience that prompted Cynthia and her husband, Dr. Norbert Hirschhorn, to make a planned gift to AUB to establish an endowed fellowship that will support US citizens doing graduate degrees in the social sciences or humanities related to the Middle East. “We hope this will give select young Americans the opportunity for deep learning about the Middle East through graduate studies at AUB. My experience at AUB is that this deep learning comes from coursework, thesis research, and enduring friendships.”

“I have had the good fortune to study at several wonderful universities, but AUB is the one I wanted to support—especially now,” Cynthia explains. “I hope this fellowship will enable some American students to have the opportunity that I had.”