A scholarship in memory of an older brother – and a “pillar of the university”
November 23, 2023
In a message that he sent to the AUB community on October 2, 2017, announcing the passing of Dean Lutfi Diab, President Fadlo R. Khuri lauded him as “a venerable member of the AUB community.” Diab spent more than four decades at the university during which time he served as both dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and as acting president.
Lutfi Najib Diab (BA Psychology ’51) joined the AUB faculty in 1957 after earning his PhD at the University of Oklahoma. He quickly moved up the professorial ranks, from assistant to associate to full professor. He made significant contributions to the AUB Department of Psychology, which was later renamed the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Diab also made significant contributions to the university dating back to 1968 when he was appointed assistant dean. In 1969, he was appointed associate dean under FAS Dean E. Terry Prothro, who was both a colleague and co-author. They co-authored Changing Family Patterns in the Arab East in 1974.
During the height of the civil war, Diab assumed the role of dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a position he held until 1997. It was during this period that Diab also served as acting president (1986-87). In a memorable commencement address that he gave in 1986, Diab spoke about the challenges that the university faced and the importance of meeting and overcoming those challenges. “We are not satisfied with what exists, nor should we ever be. We owe it to the present and future generations to see to it that this institution is preserved and enhanced,” he said.
Diab retired in 1999 after decades of exemplary dedication to the university. It is a dedication that lives on in the lives of his five children, all of whom are AUB alumni: Rula (BA English ’92, MA Education ’96), Najib (BBA ’93, MBA’95), Samar (BA Public Administration ’95, MA Public Administration ’99), Dima (BS Biology ’98, MD ’02), and Dalia (BA Psychology ’01). For all of them, and for their mother, Salwa Jubran Makdah, who is also an alumna (BA Psychology ’68, MA Psychology ’70), AUB is “home.”
Dr. Lutfi was a source of inspiration not only for his colleagues, students at the university, and to his children, but also to his siblings. He was the oldest of nine children. “We all looked up to him as our idol and he never failed to be just that,” remembers his brother, Bassam, who recently established the Dean Lutfi Diab Endowed Scholarship in his brother’s name. Proceeds from the endowed fund will support a full scholarship for an exceptional Lebanese student majoring in the social sciences at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. An AUB alumnus himself (BA Political Studies ’71), Bassam says that his family “consider AUB as the most important educational establishment in Lebanon and the Middle East. I am lucky and grateful that I am able to arrange the financing for this scholarship to commemorate my late brother Lutfi.”