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30
WINTER
2012
Letters to the editor
This is a true story about the late martyr, Dr. Basel Fuleihan ‘81
(killed in 2005 with former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri) and
his brother, Dr Ramzi, who is a hematology-oncology specialist
at Duke University in North Carolina. Dr Ramzi was also my
classmate since 1964 (we were both with Basel at the Prep).
We didn’t have computers in those days so during our lunch break,
we would play marbles.These marbles came in many colors and of
course we would buy and sell them from each other for 1,2,3,5 pi-
asters. If it was a super nice one, we would pay one whole lira for it.
We had lots of fun – believe you me, it can’t be described.
One time, we had a competition to win a very precious marble.
This was done by standing a few feet away and hitting it with
small marbles. Ten of us hit that special marble, including myself,
Ramzi, Basel, my brother Bassim, another Ramzi, and Nabil.
It’s rather funny that we all became medical doctors except for
Basel and Nabil (Basel received a PhD in business and Nabil was
awarded a PhD in engineering). After there was no decisive win-
ner, we had a fist fight, which I won, so I took the marble home!
God bless your soul Basel.
Dr. Elias Azar ‘77
Looking back retrospectively, my years at the IC (1959-1961)
were some of my best. I am now 70 years old and have been all
over the world for at least 35 years of my life.
In my opinion, those years were special because they filled me with
knowledge and well-being. I studied 16th century French litera-
ture with Mr.Pierlot; the beautiful Arab literature of the Abbasid
era with the newly printed textbook of Mr. Gebran Massoud (of
course, taught by himself ); and was lucky to meet literary Shake-
speare (in Macbeth) and Marlowe. Not to mention, my Philoso-
phy studies with Mr.Doubine, where Darwin’s Theory of Evolu-
tion (in the 1960s) was presented and compared to Lamarck’s ¨
one strand ¨ evolution. Once again, I stress this was in 1960-1961.
I have three children who are independent now after complet-
ing their high school and university studies in the US. It’s hardly
comparable to the general education that I received at IC.They
excel in what they do but miss the special touch I received at IC.
And now to the story: in Mr. Doubine’s philosophy class in The
Math Elementary section, Serge Doubine, the teacher’s son, took
all liberties with his classmates, annoying them with all kinds of
small tricks.
We decided, we being myself, Witold Manastersky, and Selim
Srour, to take revenge.
One day, we went at 6 am to have a heavy breakfast at Fattet
Makademe in downtown Beirut, with all the relative dressings
that come with it (I never did that again). As a result, we came to
class at 8am heavily loaded. We took our seats surrounding the
poor fellow Serge. He could not breathe with the perfumes of the
Fatteh. He became red, green, and had soon covered all the colors
of the spectrum.The consequence was that the four us were put à
la porte by our Geometry Professor Mr.Dumont.
Selim Ashkenazi ‘61
From IC to Edinburgh, Scotland
It is not too often that two IC classmates attend the same
universities and settle down in the same city abroad by sheer
chance rather than design. Yet that is precisely what happened to
Drs Hagop Bessos and Samir Sayegh. After graduating from IC
in 1970, Hagop (brother of the late Mr Bessilios Bessos, ex-IC
Biology teacher) and Samir (son of Mr Yusuf Sayegh, ex-IC
Mathematics teacher) obtained their respective science degrees
from AUB and then continued their studies at the University of
Edinburgh in Scotland, before settling down in the city. Hagop
went on to work as a Principal Research Scientist in the Scottish
National Blood Transfusion Service from 1980 to 2012, publish-
ing over 50 scientific papers and becoming a Fellow of the Royal
College of Pathologists, while Samir went on to be a highly suc-
cessful Orthodontist, running several clinics in Edinburgh and
becoming a president of the Royal Odonto-Chirurgical Society
of Scotland.They kept in close touch throughout, including their
weekly squash and racquetball encounters (photo), an example of
the commitment to fitness and excellence instilled in them dur-
ing their budding years at IC.They can be contacted at bessos@
blueyonder.co.uk and sayegh@aol.com
Hagop Bessos ‘70
Mid-March is usually St Patrick’s Day, celebrated by Irish people
around the world with parades covered and adorned in green.
Not to be outdone, my good friend, Dr. Mohamed Saab ‘62, who
lives in South Florida in the winter, went all green with his IC
gym shirt. When curious revelers enquired about this IC logo, he
responded, ‘it’s the famous “Irish Classic” of course’...which I am
sure has started a few Google searches by now!!
Ghaleb Daouk ‘74