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Winter 2008 Vol. VI, No. 2
Letters to the Editors
Fall 2007 Vol. 6, No. 1
Remembering Levon Melikian
With deep sorrow and sadness I send this tribute to Professor Levon Melikian,
professor of psychology at AUB (1949-75). Dr. Melikian had a compassion
to help needy students. As dean of students and student counselor, he
helped me on more than one occasion, notably by providing me, among others,
with meal tickets to the cafeteria. Dr. Melikian helped me find a job
at the Jafet Library, a job I held until my graduation in 1960. On my
graduation day, he gave me a beautiful necktie that matched my only suit,
saying this is a gift from me and Alice for your graduation.
I always contacted Dr. Melikian when he was still at AUB and after his
retirement in Toronto, Canada, seeking his advice and guidance. He was
my guiding light. I shall always remember him as a man of the world. He
treated needy students, regardless of their religion, gender, or national
origin, equally. To him, the only criterion for help was need.
Although I was not a student of his, he was a great mentor to me. I will
miss him dearly.
Dr. Abdallah Mohamad Isa (BS ’60)
Nashville, TN
Summer 2007 Vol. V, No. 4
Rx for Success
July 1973 was the first time laparoscopy* had been done in the Middle
East. I had just come back from Johns Hopkins Medical Center to establish
the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and
Obstetrics JHPIEGO, equipped with state of the art tools. Through the
laparoscope, with an eye in the pelvis, performing the first tubal and
ovarian laparoscopic surgeries at AUH and in the whole region was for
me setting a novel achievement standard for AUH and the region. Thousands
of such operations followed, both for patient care and training. The trainees
were AUB OB-GYN faculty and faculty members of Arab universities from
different medical centers in the Arab World. More than a hundred trainees
spent a month each at AUB to go back to their respective hospitals and
put laparoscopy in use. Since then laparoscopy has become an essential
tool in every operating theater and a widely used technique in gynecology
and surgery.
Karam Karam MD, FACS
AUBMC
*Laparoscopy is a surgical procedure performed through very small incisions
in the abdomen. A pencil-thin instrument called a laparoscope is used
to give the surgeon an exceptionally clear view, on a TV monitor, of the
inside of the abdominal cavity.
I would like to come forward with my sincere sense of appreciation
to your department and to the working staff, editor, and directors for
such a wonderful job done with inspiring dedication. Truly, I am proud
to regard myself as a MainGate
reader as it showed professionalism, clarity, and excellence
in all aspects any reader can take into account.
Amer Sulaiman
Amman, Jordan
Spring 2007 Vol. V, No. 3
“Negotiating Peacetime”
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading the electronic issue
of MainGate for spring 2007. The article on Dr. Bliss speaking to the
Peace Conference in 1919 was exceptionally interesting, weaving AUB history
with the history of the world and our region. I hope you will continue
to publish articles of such historical significance from your archives.
And the electronic version is excellent as a way to disseminate information.
I much prefer it to the paper version.
Many thanks for your efforts.
Samir Majid Fakhry (BS ’77, MD ’81)
McLean, VA
AUB has 141 years of history to discover, and we’ll keep sharing materials
from the archives. We’re glad you checked out the electronic version.
To receive MainGate on-line via email, just send a request to maingate@aub.edu.lb
“The Education Morph”
When one speaks of The Education Morph, I am taken back to an afternoon
standing under the banyan tree in front of College Hall. I, among other
“Staffites,” (what a demeaning title that was) was talking with Stuart
Carter Dodd. Dr. Dodd had come out with about thirty of us on the Mauritania,
a converted troop ship from WWII. The year was 1946, and this was the
first wave of staff to come to AUB after the war. Dr. Dodd was a sociologist
from the University of Washington, Seattle. Statistics, and correlations
in particular, were a necessary part of the work of sociologists—and a
bugbear. As much as thirty working hours could be spent doing a single
correlation.
As we stood talking Dr. Dodd interjected an idea that surprised us. He
had figured out a way to do a correlation in what he calculated would
take but thirty minutes. Upon being quizzed about this stunning concept,
he replied in effect that it would simply be a matter of electrical circuitry.
He felt quite confident in his knowledge.
Almost immediately he was asked, “Are you going to get a patent on this?”
Ah, think of the money he could make with an idea like this. And think
of the money that has. But, think of what a tool it has been.
“No,” was his reply, “I am a social scientist and not interested in business.
I will publish the idea where all the world may see, and hope that someone
will carry it forward to creating a tool for me, and others, to use.”
Tedford P. Lewis
Webster Groves, MO
Errata
Class Notes, Fall 2007, Vol. VI, No. 1,
Page 42: the picture is of Neil Skene, not Eason Jordan.
Page 44: Magda Abu-Fadil is currently the director of the Journalism Training
Program. She headed the IPG (Institute for Professional Journalists) at
LAU.
Page 67: Muhsin Sayyid Mahdi is survived by two daughters, Fatima and
Nadia, from a previous marriage to Cynthia Risner; and two stepdaughters,
Rachel and Rebekah Gerstein.