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An empty lot to show for playground promised in Wilkes-Barre’s Rolling Mill Hill

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Capitol hearing ‘only the beginning’ of White Haven Center debate

<p>They called it the &#8220;kids&#8217; rebellion.&#8221;</p><p>A day after her father, community leader Mahmoud Fahmy, of Dallas, passed away, Randa Fahmy on Tuesday recalled a favorite family story about how she and her sister Roya and brother Raef once told their parents they wanted to be like other families and go to Disney World.</p><p>&#8220;So they put beds in the back of the station wagon and drove 24 hours to Orlando, Fla. We stayed a week and we were waiting in lines, it was sweltering hot, and we went to see, &#8216;It&#8217;s a Small World&#8217; and we said &#8216;This is not like the real world. We&#8217;ve seen the real world and this is not it&#8217;.&#8221;</p><p>After that, Randa Fahmy said, the kids were happy to once again accompany their parents, Mahmoud and Irandukht, on visits to Egypt, where their grandparents lived, and other international spots.</p><p>Seeing the world from a global perspective, and promoting unity among its people, is part of Mahmoud Fahmy&#8217;s legacy, friends and colleagues said Tuesday. Fahmy, a longtime academic and administrator at Wilkes University, died Monday at age 88.</p><p>&#8220;The most succinct way to say it was he was my brother,&#8221; said Rabbi Larry Kaplan from Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s Temple Israel. &#8220;He called me that every time he met me, and gave me a big hug.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He was a modest man. Every time he gathered with his friends who were clergy, often Rev. (Robert) Zanicky and Rev. (Vincent) Grimalia and Mahmoud and I, he would say, I&#8217;m not a holy man like all of you but I&#8217;d like to make this historical point &#8230;. He had enormous wisdom and we all learned from him. He was convinced that he and I would someday be able to go to the Middle East and bring about peace, just the two of us. We could handle that.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He was always so engaging, friendly and extremely knowledgeable,&#8221; said Zanicky, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Wilkes-Barre. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to miss him greatly. He was a voice of reason and kindness and encouraged all of us to work together, whatever our faith tradition is. He was a wonderful person for helping the community understand Islam.&#8221;</p><p>Wilkes University president Donald S. Adams praised Fahmy&#8217;s dedication to interfaith causes and to education, saying the long-time Wilkes professor and administrator &#8220;will be remembered by colleagues and the generations of alumni he taught.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He was a most caring man, a strong and consistent advocate for people who needed help in achieving their goals,&#8221; said Thomas P. Leary, president of Luzerne County Community College, where Fahmy served on the board of trustees from 1994 to 2011.</p><p>&#8220;He taught us all the value of education,&#8221; Randa Fahmy said, noting her father proudly presented diplomas to each of his children when they earned their undergraduate degrees from Wilkes. &#8220;My sister has her master&#8217;s degree, my brother is a doctor and I&#8217;m a lawyer,&#8221; she said. &#8220;For us, it was a normal thing to do.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He always said &#8216;You&#8217;re Americans and you can do anything you want, whether you&#8217;re a man or a woman, a boy or a girl.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He was the most optimistic person I ever met,&#8221; Randa Fahmy added. &#8220;He never saw the glass as half full. He saw it as overflowing. It couldn&#8217;t help but rub off on all of us.&#8221;</p><p>Following a private Islamic burial on Tuesday, the family will receive condolence from 4 to 7 p.m. today <ins>(Wednesday) </ins>at the Wilkes University Henry Student Center, 84 W. South St., Wilkes-Barre.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>Read Dr. Mahmoud Fahmy&#8217;s obituary on Page 4A.</p></factboxMeta></div>

Friends, colleagues remember community leader Mahmoud Fahmy