Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2009, page 64

In Memoriam

David S. Dodge (1922-2009)

By Andrew I. Killgore

	David S. Dodge (Courtesy Dodge Family).

DAVID STUART Dodge, one of the most highly respected and widely known of the “old Middle East hands,” died on Jan. 20 in Princeton, New Jersey, his home.

One cannot think of David Dodge and the great Dodge family without reflecting on the American University of Beirut (AUB), founded nearly a hundred and fifty years ago by his great-grandfather, David Bliss. The university constitutes the preeminent American cultural legacy in the Middle East.

David Dodge was born in Beirut in 1922, the same year his father, Dr. Bayard Dodge, became the president of AUB. After high school at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, David earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Princeton University and later a master’s degree in Arabic and Middle East studies at the same university. In World War II, he served in the Middle East with the Office of Strategic Studies.

From 1952 to 1977 David worked for the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO). He and his wife, Doris Westfall (who died in 2000), lived near AUB in Beirut. Everybody knew that David came of a monied family, but the Dodges, as a way of life, were ever-so-careful not to give any sign that they had money. When the family entertained students of the Arab language in Beirut in 1956 (of whom the writer was one), no piece of furniture or kind of drink gave any hint that they were well off.

David Stuart Dodge was easy to like, low-key, very bright, amusing and friendly. He was kidnapped in 1982, when he was acting president of AUB, and held captive for one year, mainly in Iran. But he was loath to talk about the experience; he would usually only say that he had not been mistreated.

For years David was president of the highly regarded Near East Foundation, inspired and largely funded by the Dodge family for doing good works, mainly in the Middle East. He served as president of AUB in 1996 and 1997 from its headquarters in New York. After he retired, he was active in philanthropic and civic affairs.

Mr. Dodge is survived by his second wife, Margaret White Keating; his sister, Grace Dodge Guthrie (the author of Legacy to Lebanon, a tender memoir about the family and AUB, and available from the AETBook Club); four children from his first marriage, Nina, Bayard, Melissa, and Simon Dodge; three stepchildren, Richard White, Jr., John E. White, and Lee White Galvis; four grandchildren; and eight step-grandchildren.

Andrew I. Killgore is publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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