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23
IC Memories
In 1968 I was the troop leader of IC’ s Beirut Four
Scouting Group and we were planning a dancing party
to raise money for the troop while offering IC students
a venue to enjoy.
As we were preparing the flyers for the dance I came
up with the name AFTER-MATH. The name was in-
spired by an LP by the Rolling Stones who were very
popular at the time and claimed to be The Greatest
Rock and Roll Band of All Times. Plus the fact that af-
ter math classes at IC everybody needed to unwind.
We had to get the approval of Mr. Archie Crawford for
setting up the dance which was to take place at the Sage
Hall. Mr. Crawford was in agreement to the whole idea
except that he objected to the name AFTER-MATH due to
certain political tensions in Lebanon ( what’s new?) at
the time and his reasoning was that the name would be
construed as an aftermath to these events.
I did not back down, so I went and bought the
Stones’ LP in order to convince Mr. Crawford of the origin
of the name as I assumed he was not familiar with one
of the most popular contemporary bands at the time.
Mr. Crawford being the understanding gentle-
man he was, with some cajoling from my part helped
him to see the light (the Rolling Stones LP) thereupon
agreed to the name, the flyers
were printed for the AFTER-MATH
dance. The dance was a great success be-
cause I assume the students were familiar with the LP.
I still have that Album in CD form now, and every time
I listen to it I remember the dance, Mr. Crawford and all
the Boy Scouts and Rovers at Beirut Four who made the
dance a success. Especially Nadeem Joury ‘71 who pre-
pared the amazing artwork posters for the dance.
P.S. I did manage to attend a Stones concert in To-
ronto in 2002, Mick (60 years old) performed fantasti-
cally with some songs from the After-Math LP.
Issa Kawar ‘69
Canada
I am proud to be an IC graduate, the son of an IC
graduate, and the father of IC graduates: Indeed, my
father Mahmoud graduated in 1920, I myself am a 1964
IC graduate, followed by my two sons Hicham and Riad
who graduated from 1C in 1990 and 1991 respectively.
Curiosity and ambition prompted me to return to the
IC archive system to familiarize myself with my father’s
educational record, and to shed light on some aspects
of his personality of which I had been hitherto unaware.
I was pleased to find out that my father had held a re-
cord for distinction in all the courses he took, English
and Arabic courses in particular. From that moment I
recognized that what he had built and achieved for us
had been the product of a mind that had always an-
ticipated the period we are presently living through.
Going through my memories of my time at IC, a num-
ber of pictures and people come to mind, starting with
my virtuous advisor, Ms. Najwa El-Sayyed, and passing
through several teachers who planted the seeds of knowl-
edge and nurtured them in my brain, among others,
Huntington Bliss, Sadek Umar, Atef Karam, Besilios Bessos
and Musa Suleiman to whom I owe respect and the great-
est credit for my Arabic knowledge and comprehension.
IC is not an institution that only educates men: in
fact, its inauguration in the Ras Beirut area was a sig-
nificant educational event that went on to impact and
reverberate across the entire country and region. IC
dedicated itself to teaching a higher level of the English
language, at a time when French was considered the
first foreign language in the country. As a result, many
families rushed to contribute grants to facilitate the
path of such a prominent institution, believing in the
assertive and effective role IC played.
Education is an insurance tool to safeguard Leba-
non’s human resources, while protecting them from any
harm that could affect the unity of its nation and people.
Mohammad Al Amin Itani ‘64
Member of the Lebanese Parliament