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WINTER
2011
27
from being sent home.
We were in class with
Gebran Tueini, God bless
his soul, and in front of
us sat Paul Gebeili.The
“bank” seats were such
that they were bolted to
the wooden floor and the back of the front chair was the same
table that we wrote on sitting behind on the rear chair. We
started pushing on the front chair using our feet and the whole
front table cracked, broke out, and Paul flew over, landing head
down feet-up in the air at the next table in front. Paul stood up
and dusted himself off while we were on the floor laughing. But
guess what? He was thrown out and told never to return to class.
While he left screaming, we stood for the next hour trying to talk
Mr. Aidi out of it without insinuating it was us that cracked the
table, as we were also on the edge with several “rapports” up our
sleeve. Memorable indeed. Negotiations to clear our friend Paul,
without getting blamed ourselves. Creative indeed!
Roni Sabri ‘76
Greetings!!
Your email triggered a search in my library and I found my copy
of
TORCH 1952
. Looking through the issue, I find a number of
interesting items which bring back nostalgic thoughts:
As I read through the Prep Parade, 1951-52, which described the
main events of the year, some noteworthy ones sprung to mind:
the strike in support of the Egyptian revolution of Gamal Abdel
Nasser; the inauguration of our new playground, the “Palm Tree
Field”, where many of my friends and I honed our softball skills;
the visit to IC of Major James Jabara, the world’s ace jet pilot
who became famous in the Korean War; the incidents with the
famous date palm tree in the middle of the playing field, where
items got caught in its branches and which was finally removed;
the infamous battle of firecrackers between the IC and ACS on
the occasion of the Prophet’s Birthday which lasted for 3 hours;
the visit of Ms. Helen Keller to IC; the fabulous Prep Night
show which we all looked forward to every year.
One of my favorite extra-curricular activities was the
Stamp
Club
, under the guidance of Mr. Conde. Having collected since
the age of seven, I found a great deal of pleasure in furthering
my hobby and exchanging with other collectors. I am still very
much involved in this past time and am a member in a number
of Philatelic Societies in Canada and the USA. Over the years,
I have both increased and upgraded my collection and have par-
ticipated in stamp exhibitions on a number of occasions.
Our fourth year classmates were grouped into four Sections. My
section was 4-B and we became known as the most trouble-mak-
ing but highly entertaining sections among the graduating crowd.
We even had our own class Motto:
East,West- 4B is Best
…
among this distinguished group I had some favorites with whom
my relations continued for a long time after graduation: David
Abadjian, Sion David, Guido Gargulio, the late Hassan Ghan-
dour, Sabbah Al-Hajj, Yanal Hikmat, the late Stanley Khoury,
Nizar Majzoub, Dick Shaheen, Mubada Suidan and John Youssef.
Fouad M. Kronfol ‘52
I never quite understood when people said that their IC experi-
ence was life changing and that what they learned in this campus
resonated throughout the rest of their life! But now, after four
years, I understand these statements more and more.The strong
technical skills I gained gave me a jump-start at the American
University of Beirut and later on at the University of Michigan in
Dearborn.The numerous soft skills I learned at IC and the hours
of community service I completed gave me more people skills
that definitely helped me during my transition to the United
States. In short, this whole experience supported my progress in
every stage of my life thus far! And now, as I start my engineer-
ing career at Chrysler LLC, I feel indebted to the IC teachers
and, of course, my peers who helped me develop academically
and personally.This is for you current IC students. IC changed
the course of my life!!
Ayyash and friends
Akram Ayyash ‘07
I have never forgotten the five years I spent at IC and I still keep
several old Alumni magazines and “Torch” 1963 to help me
remember my Alma Mater and my schoolmates and teachers, in
name and face.
When I first joined the school in 1958, Lebanon was recover-
ing from a brief civil war, nicknamed the “events of 1958”, which
started on May 12, 1958, following the assassination of the
journalist Nassib Metni two days earlier.This abruptly ended
my academic year 1957/1958 at Furn El Chebbak second-
ary school for boys, a public school. Going to IC was a great
improvement v/s a public school at that time. My aunt, whose
boys were already enrolled at IC, suggested the move to me. She
called Mrs. Bikhazi, then Director of IC, and explained how my
academic year was interrupted by the events and I was accepted
to the second secondary - in 5eme. I was relieved! The previous
five months were dreadful as my elder brother Anwar was shot
to death the very first day of those events. We therefore spent the
whole five months stuck at home to avoid further dangers from
the situation.
When school classes resumed in October, it helped me a lot
to forget my grievances, especially since my new school had a
nice campus with green fields, trees and flower alleys and, most