Alumni & Friends

A Lifetime of Service: Karim Nasser

By MainGate Staff

Spring/Summer 2020

The prairie land of Saskatchewan seems to stretch forever. “You can see for a hundred miles,” says Dr. Karim “Kay” Nasser. “You can’t imagine how long you can see.” Nasser has loved the view since he first moved to Saskatoon in 1961. Over half a century since then, his achievements, honors, and generosity seem to stretch almost as far as those prairies. Simultaneously a professor of civil engineering, an inventor, a property developer, and a philanthropist, Nasser has left his mark on countless students as well as on the skyline of Saskatoon. The ninety-three-year-old, whom one journalist called a “low-key millionaire,” has also given away over twenty million dollars in his lifetime to universities, hospitals, and organizations that help people because, he says, “people helped me all the time. How can I do any better than what they did for me?”

Nasser’s daughter Mona says, “There are two occasions when our father seemed happiest—on the occasion of all the births of his grandchildren and on a road trip.” Nasser and his wife Dora have an excuse for many road trips as they have five children and ten grandchildren in Canada as well as numerous extended family members in both Canada and United States.

“For me, it all began in a small village in Lebanon,” Nasser says, “where I was surrounded by family who helped me get through school, taught me to work, and finally helped me to attend AUB.” After AUB, Nasser went to college in the United States and then to teach and get his PhD at the University of Saskatchewan. By all accounts, he was a born teacher with a special interest in people who showed they were willing to try. Over his thirty-three years of teaching, he says, “I tried to teach people who were there to learn. I liked students to know I was one of them.” Then he adds, “I’m hoping they will do the same with others.”

Buried in a very long list of Nasser’s patents, scientific publications, and honors is a telling entry. It’s a book entitled How I Achieved My Dreams, later expanded and entitled How to Achieve Your Dreams. It’s noted that all royalties from the book are donated to the Nasser scholarship funds at five different universities. As for which of his honors he is most proud of, Nasser says, “My answer is difficult and simple at the same time—which one of my children am I most proud of?”