Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 2016, pp. 72
Obituaries
Compiled by Nathaniel Bailey
Mary Anne (Sarkis) Hazo, 89, died July 7 of natural causes at her home in Upper St. Clair, PA. Originally from Millvale, PA, she was named one of the top three legal secretaries in the United States as an Executive Secretary of the Allegheny Bar Association. Throughout her life she was a dedicated member of her community, serving on the Women’s Boards of Duquesne University and The Holy Family Institute. She is survived by her husband, poet Samuel Hazo, their son and daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren.
Abdul Sattar Edhi, 88, a Pakistani philanthropist, died July 8 of kidney ailments at a hospital in Karachi. Known across Pakistan as the “angel of mercy” for his social work and welfare programs, he founded and owned a foundation that runs Pakistan’s largest ambulance service, as well as nursing homes, orphanages, clinics, women’s shelters and rehabilitation centers. He was born in 1928 in then-British-ruled India, and migrated to Pakistan in 1947, when India was partitioned, and began his charity work. He and his wife, Bilquis Bano, lived modestly and humbly throughout their marriage in a two-room apartment next to his foundation’s headquarters. Edhi received numerous international awards, including the Gandhi Peace Award, the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize and the London Peace Award. He is survived by his wife and their four children.
Robert Carswell, 87, died July 22 at his home in Great Barrington, MA, of complications from dementia. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in government and economics. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1952, he worked for more than 40 years at the New York-based law firm of Shearman and Sterling. He was known in Washington for his negotiating skills, serving under three Democratic presidents. He was part of the negotiating team seeking the release of more than 60 American hostages who had been taken captive following the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy by Iranian students in Tehran and held in Iran for more than a year. He is survived by his wife, Mary Wilde, two children and two grandsons.
Dr. Thomas Sutherland, 85, who was held captive by Hezbollah in Lebanon for more than six years, died July 22, 2016 of natural causes. Born in Scotland, he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Glasgow in 1953, and a doctorate in animal science from Iowa State University in 1958. After spending much of his early career as a professor at Colorado State University, he joined the faculty of the American University of Beirut in 1983. On June 9, 1985, gunmen attacked his car, taking him and a number of Americans hostage. While in captivity, Dr. Sutherland became close to his fellow hostage Terry Anderson, then Beirut bureau chief for the Associated Press. The two spent much of their captivity together, comforting and encouraging each other through their ordeal. After his release, Dr. Sutherland returned to Colorado and spent his time acting and supporting local arts organizations. In 1996, he and his wife, Jean, completed a book about the Middle East and their experiences titled At Your Own Risk.
Dr. Ahmed H. Zewail, 70, the first Arab and Egyptian to win a Nobel Prize in science, died Aug. 2 of cancer. He grew up in Damanhur, a city northwest of Cairo on the banks of the Nile River. He graduated from Egypt’s Alexandria University in 1967 and two years later earned a master’s degree in chemistry. After completing a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974, Dr. Zewail continued his research at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1976, he joined the California Institute of Technology as an assistant professor, later becoming the first holder of a chair named for Linus C. Pauling, one of the few winners of two Nobel Prizes. Dr. Zewail received his Nobel in 1999 for his work using lasers to study chemical reactions as they occurred over almost infinitesimal intervals of time, giving science new insights into how chemical reactions proceed. This permitted unprecedented understanding of chemical behavior at its most detailed level.
A dual Egyptian-American citizen, Dr. Zewail served as a member of President Obama’s science and technology advisory panel from 2009-2013 and as the president’s special envoy for science to the Middle East. Over the years, Dr. Zewail worked to generate political interest in and raise money to create a science-based university in Cairo. He is survived by his wife, Dema Faham, and their four children. ◙
