Najeeb E. Halaby

By Andrew I. Killgore

Najeeb L. Halaby is outwardly too easy-going to evoke any mystery-man image. Yet his consistent successes in a wide and varied range of activities bespeak a man of enormous drive and complexity. Who's Who in America describes this graduate of Stanford University and the Yale Law School as a lawyer and a financier. Less well known is the fact that he was also a professional test pilot and later a U.S. Naval aviator in World War II.

Mr. Halaby first came to public prominence in 1961 as Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), a post to which he was appointed by President Kennedy. Newspapers of the Kennedy era made much of him as the first Arab American to achieve high rank in the U.S. government. Although reporters who interviewed him at the time seemed to be looking for an exotic Middle Easterner, what they found was a Dallas-born (Lebanese-American father, Texas-rancher mother) Ivy Leaguer, at ease in any environment, including upper-level Washington. They also found an excellent head of the FAA.

Flying High with PanAm

Few people knew then that he had already distinguished himself in government before coming to the attention of President Kennedy. Between 1948 and 1952, Mr. Halaby served first as a foreign affairs advisor to the Secretary of Defense and then as a deputy assistant secretary of defense, where he organized the present office of International Security Affairs.

After leaving the FAA, Mr. Halaby achieved international fame as president, chairman and chief executive officer of Pan American World Airways. Joining PanAm as a senior vice president in 1965 and succeeding to the chairmanship in 1969, he logged millions of miles directing the corporation's travel and hotel empire, having flown and introduced the 747 to the world. When he stepped down in 1972, he had dealt professionally with a great many of the world's top business and political-leaders.

A unique event in Najeeb Halaby's life was the marriage of his daughter, Lisa, to King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan. Americans exhibit an intense interest in Lisa, the all-American girl who became Queen Noor of Jordan. She seems to be handling her role with queenly dignity. The new family connection to Arab royalty, however, has perforce added an extra dimension to all of Mr. Halaby's Middle Eastern activities, but to avoid conflict or embarrassment has caused him to shun business activities in Jordan.

As chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut (A.U.B.), the preeminent American educational and cultural monument in the Middle East, Najeeb Halaby now faces perhaps the biggest challenge of his life. Since he was once a faculty lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles, his difficulties stem not from any unfamiliarity with the academic world, but rather from a disastrous decline in esteem for America—both in Lebanon and the Arab world as a whole. Despite the impact of ten years of almost continuous fighting in Lebanon, A.U.B. has maintained high academic standards. But as U.S. activities have stirred deep resentment in the Middle East, some in Lebanon now question the need for such a U.S. educational institution at all.

Striving to Keep A.U.B. Healthy

Najeeb Halaby's overwhelming interest at this time is to assure the continuation of a healthy American University of Beirut, whose next to last president, Malcolm Kerr, was assassinated in 1984, and whose acting president before that, David Dodge, was kidnapped in 1982 and held incommunicado for one year. These tragedies, and previous violence against U.S. and Arab faculty members at this distinguished institution, are side effects of the deep resentment throughout the Arab world for U.S. support of Israel, and resentment in Lebanon for what is perceived as a conspicuous failure by the U.S. to prevent the Israeli attack on Lebanon in 1982. It is ironic that A.U.B. has become a target of this resentment, in view of its previous role as a symbol for a century and a half of particularly close and productive U.S.-Arab relations.

With high-level connections in both the U.S. and the Middle East, Mr. Halaby has so far been successful in assuring continued U.S. government financial support for the university. He also is working for a more compassionate U.S.-Middle East policy, and is cooperating with Arab and Jewish Americans to improve conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank.

Najeeb Halaby sees the American teachers and physicians who established A.U.B. more than a century ago as practical idealists who earned the gratitude of generations of Middle Easterners. A determined man, he hopes during his tenure as chairman to help the current president, Dr. Calvin H. Plimpton, and the faculty recreate a better atmosphere at A.U.B. Although he is aware that future U.S. government policies may ultimately determine their success or failure, he will do his utmost on every level to preserve a university with a distinguished past for what may still be a successful future.

Andrew I. Killgore is a retired foreign service officer and former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar who now is president of the American Educational Trust.