Khalil Boutros Haddad
November 22, 1934 ~ May 1, 2014
Of McLean, Virginia (age 79) passed away peacefully on May 1, 2014 surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Baskinta, a village nestled in the mountains of central Lebanon on November 22, 1934, the youngest of seven children to Boutros Khalil Haddad and Najla Samaha. Whenever he spoke of his beloved Lebanon and his mountain roots, he did so with very intense emotion and pride. From these humble beginnings of village life, he excelled in academics to become the first and only one in his family to pursue higher education, receiving a BA in political science in 1956 from the American University in Beirut. Political activism was in his blood, yet he also had a passion for literature and poetry. Many of his writings were published in Kul Shay magazine in the early nineteen fifties. During his years in Lebanon, he was an active member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and always stood for secularism. In serving this party, he traversed various Syrian villages to teach its children some basic education. He worked as general inspector for the Lebanese national reconstruction board which gave him access to visit the various Lebanese villages and serve as liason officer between the central government and the local authorities. Later, he was a correspondent for AnNahar newspaper, a job which placed him in many countries. In 1962, he immigrated to the US, where he continued his education at Howard University, attaining an MA in government and politics. His career in the US included positions at the Voice of America, the US Department of State, the Defense Language Institute and Alia, the Royal Jordanian Airlines. He was very active in the Arab American community, having been one of the founding members of the National Association of Arab Americans and the American-Arab Anti-Dicrimination Committee, from which he received an award in 1994 in recogntion of his sustained contributions to the Arab-American community. Khalil can be described as a sociable, Kind, loving and witty human being with a good sense of humor, who loved to recount amusing stories from his village life and recite his own poems to his friends. He was a devoted father and a doting grandfather. He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Suhaila; his sons, Ziyad and Sami; his daughter-in-law, Reem; grandchildren, Serene, Samar, Ramzy and Ronny and by 19 nieces and Nephews, as well as many other relatives and friends who live in Lebanon. the UAE, Europe and the US. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Saints Peter and Paul Church as mentioned above.
Funeral Home:
Money & King Funeral Home
171 W. Maple Ave.
Vienna, VA
US 22180
Funeral Home:
Money & King Funeral Home
171 W. Maple Ave.
Vienna, VA
US 22180
To Z, Sammy, and Mrs. Haddad, I wanted to briefly extend my condolences to you all. I remember Mr. Haddad as an amazingly friendly and outgoing person. Every time I visited your house, he always had this contagious enthusiasm, and always made me feel welcome…as if we had been friends for a lifetime. And he would always set aside time to sit down with ‘the young men’ to impart his little nuggets of wisdom. He was truly an inspirational soul! With deepest sympathies, Paul