With great sadness AUB announced the death of Professor Emeritus Najib Abu Haydar. Many colleagues and friends paid tribute to this dominant figure prominent in education, medicine, and public life. Acting Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine Nabil T. Nassar spoke of knowing Professor Abu Haydar as "a teacher, friend, and advocate during [his] early medical school years and beyond." He said that the department and "his many friends and colleagues [would] only find consolation in his family, who will keep his memory alive."
In communicating the loss to the AUB community, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and the Medical Center Nadim Cortas recalled the exemplary life of "his mentor, colleague, and friend," describing him as "a great man with a history that is intermeshed with that of the Faculty of Medicine at AUB and Lebanon, . . . [who] left us after a long life of exemplary non-discriminate giving. He dedicated almost all his life to others. His loving family at AUB and Lebanon will feel his loss. Lebanon lost one of its most honest, steadfast and courageous leaders.
Continuing, Dean Cortas noted that "Najib Abu Haydar was born on December 23, 1923 in Hammana, Lebanon and received his BS degree from the American University of Beirut in 1944 and his MD in 1948. He specialized in endocrinology and metabolism at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and joined Harvard University [from] 1951-1955, where he started his pioneering research on iodine deficiency.
"Najib returned to Beirut and joined AUB in 1955 as head of the Division of Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine. He established the first research, diagnostic, and therapeutic endocrinology laboratory in Lebanon and the Middle East, bringing new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities to patients and giving great opportunities to upcoming young academic physicians and scientists. This division with its laboratories remains to date one of the major assets of the Department of Internal Medicine.
"In addition to his major academic and administrative responsibilities at AUB from 1955-1992, which earned him tenure, he assumed other important responsibilities at AUB during the same period. He [was] mayor of Hammana from 1963 to 1999 and despite the very difficult times during the civil war, he insured that all laws were enforced, [thus saving] Hammana from undergoing the environmental and architectural degradation that occurred all over Lebanon during that period. He was one of the founding members (1967) and first president of the Friends of Jerusalem Society.
"During the civil war which started in 1975 in Lebanon, Najib was among the founding members of the Unified Ras Beirut Front that attracted a large following and played a major role in stabilizing the environment around AUB and its hospital, keeping them open to all and accessible as much as possible and keeping the inhabitants of Ras Beirut united and tolerant. All through his life, Najib fought against intolerance, sectarianism and injustice with unique courage, sometimes putting his life at risk. He expressed immense foresight and wisdom. He became the minister of education in Lebanon (1971-1973) and established the National Education Research Center.
"Najib was among the founding members and first president, in 1977, of the Arab Association for the Advancement of Science. He was on the governing board of the Lebanese National Council for Research and a member and president of the National UNESCO Committee. He was decorated with the distinguished Royal Jordanian Medal of Merit and was awarded the International Comenius Medal of UNESCO in 1998.
"His wife Nancy Nolan [and children] Ramiz, Elizabeth, Karim, and generations of people whom he helped to develop careers and/or express their potentials, survive him and will keep his legacy alive."

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