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Forty Years For Laura Boustany*
Hall
"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." |
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 Laura Bustani and President John Waterbury hold the Boustany Hall Painting by David Kurani |
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these words from Shakespeare, Emile Bustani (1906-1963) announced
his anniversary gift to his beloved wife Laura: the Laura Boustany
Hall. This, the third woman's dormitory at AUB, first received students
in 1962. Forty years later, in the early evening of June 27, 2002 the lounge of Boustany Hall was filled with students, faculty, administration, and staff of the University as well as three generations of the Bustani family and their friends. Also among the audience were former ministers and current members of parliament (among them HE Fouad Boutros, HE Mohammad Y. Beidoun, and HE George Skaff; and MPs Nabil Bustani and Tamam Salam). All were gathered for a ceremony in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of Laura Boustany Hall in the presence of Laura Bustani, her daughter Myrna, and other family members. Speakers Dean of Students Maroun Kisirwani and President John Waterbury recalled the romance which brought Laura and Emile together, and spoke of the importance of AUB in |
both their lives. They praised Emile as a man of forward-looking vision
beyond his time (he was a staunch defender of women's rights), whose
wisdom is reflected in the remarkable career of Laura. After the death
of her husband in a mysterious plane accident over Beirut in 1963,
she moved bravely on to become chairperson of Emile's construction
company CAT, president of a bank, builder of a five-star hotel, and
an author. Her daughter Myrna followed in her mother's footsteps.
Now an active member of the AUB Board of Trustees, Myrna, recently
honored by Prime Minister Hariri as one of three Lebanese women pioneers
in running for parliament, praised her mother's remarkable combination
of "fragility and strength, femininity and perseverance." The ceremony was not without humor, as Myrna Bustani remembered her father's stationing of bouzouki-playing colleagues in a tree near the Lee Observatory when he was courting Laura; both President Waterbury and Myrna Bustani recalled Emile's |
penchant
for singing the AUB Alma Mater in the shower. Finally, student representative, Raya Abdel Baki, spoke warmly of her three-year residency in Laura Boustany Hall. After President Waterbury presented Laura Bustani with an original David Kurani water-color representing Laura Boustany Hall as it is today, Laura herself, with unfailing dignity and grace, thanked AUB and all her friends, adding, "If Emile added my name to the dorm, it was so I could be even closer to the University which he so loved." At the end of the brief ceremony Laura Bustani stood before the AUB choir as they sang conductor Paul Meers' music for Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day," cited by Emile in his anniversary tribute to Laura some forty years ago. ———— *"Boustany" is the name that appears on the dormitory's brass plaque. "Bustani" is the correct spelling of the family name. |
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