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Tytyt
Tom Weaver, former chairman of
the IC English Department, died in
November. He was 93 years old.
Tom was posted to Teheran in the
latter stages of World War II, in the
US Army. He returned to The States
to study sacred music at Union
Theological Seminary in New York.
In 1947, Henry Sloan Coffin, the
President of the seminary, knowing
of Tom’s interest in The Middle East
and music, thought he would want
to hear about a job teaching English
andmusic at Aleppo College in Syria.
Tom completed his master’s degree
that year and was off to begin a
forty-two year love affair with the
Arab world.
Tom spent sixteen years in Aleppo,
teaching
English
and
music,
entertainingvisitors inhis apartment
and training horses with a Dr.
Iskander Kassis, who was intent on
establishing a purebred Arabian
stud farm. With Dr. Kassis, Tom
made many trips into the Syrian
desert to visit horse-breeding tribes
of Bedouin “in search of mares of
impeccable lineage.” (Tom’s words)
After sixteen years, political events
in Syria forced Tom’s departure,
along with most of the western
community in Aleppo and the rest of
the country, and he arrived in Beirut
in 1963 to teach English and begin
twenty-three years of introducing
young people to music and riding.
When I returned to IC in 1966
to succeed Hunt Bliss as English
Department Chairman, I met Tom
and wondered what I was doing
as English Department Chair with
this distinguished and multi-lingual
teacher with years of teaching
experience in the Arab world. I had
been at IC as an English teacher from
1960 to 1963 then returned to the
States for three years before feeling
the tug of Lebanon and returning
for five more years with my family.
Tom succeeded me as English
Department Chairman when I left in
the early 1970s.
In 1986, conditions in Lebanon
necessitated Tom’s departure for the
States. Hehadalwaysplannedtoretire
in Lebanon, which he considered his
home, and to live out his life there.
Instead, he returned to Delaware,
Ohio, where he had grown up and
gone to school at Ohio Wesleyan
University. He lived on campus in a
former dormitory that he remembers
visiting as a student to serenade a
coed dating a fraternity brother.
Tom loved the languages; he was
fluent in French and German and
spoke very good Arabic. He cared
very much about the proper use of
language and was not shy about
correcting others’ misuse of English.
He also loved music and equitation
and is credited with having restored
Tom
Weaver
26
IC NEWSLETTER -
SPRING 2009