This issue of AUBulletin Today begins a series of profiles of AUB staff members, people working behind the scenes, often invisibly, ensuring the ongoing smooth running of the University and its multiple programs. This month we feature Henry Matthews, editor, writer, designer and translator in the Office of Information and Public Relations (OIPR). Programs, brochures, booklets, some posters, layout designs, news stories, and press releases in English, Arabic, and French-all these pour from the hand, pen, and computer of the Office of Information and Public Relations’ Henry Matthews. Starting as a part-timer in 1986, he became full-time in 1988, when he began editing and designing the layout for the AUB Bulletin and writing articles and other materials in English and Arabic. The son of a Lebanese mother and a second generation British expatriate father, Matthews was born in Beirut and educated at Carmel St. Joseph School in Verdun and St. Elie Btina. After a year of national service in the Lebanese Army and two semesters in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at AUB, he soon realized that engineering was not “his cup of tea.” He went into fine arts at Beirut University College [BUC, now LAU], and “never looked back. I loved it. My years at BUC (1977-82) in graphic design, painting, and creative writing were beautiful years,” he said. Even before graduation from BUC, Matthews worked for ten years (1978-88) in publishing companies, producing Arabic versions of popular European and US comic books such as Superman, Batman, Tarzan, Grendizer, Lulu. “I was in charge of the whole series. For each magazine, I did translation, layout, and sometimes even drawing. It was fun, and that is how I financed my education. I loved every minute of it. But it was very tiring, and there was the war, of course.” Henry Matthews was teaching during these days as well. Starting in 1984 he taught graphic design in the extension programs at International College, and from 1985 to1994 he taught the fundamentals of design in the AUB Extension Programs. Matthews is a man of varied and compelling passions. At a young age he was grabbed by the conquest of space. When Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon in July 1969, Matthews “became really smitten by the space bug and couldn’t stop” until he devoured everything he could on space exploration, even building his own rocket aircraft. Two decades later, he wrote the prize-winning Encyclopedia of Rocket Aircraft and Space Shuttles, published by Dar Alilm Lilmalayeen. His popular encyclopedia won the Best Arabic Scientific Book Award of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science in 1993. He also produced several small booklets aimed at a general, lay audience: Journey to the Planets, Test Pilots of the Space Age, Space Stations and Travel to the Stars, and Flying Saucers. He also wrote and published two love stories in 1986. Painting, in addition to drawing, illustrating, and design, is another of Matthews’ passions. Comic books on mythical heroes started him drawing as a child. He continued drawing and painting at school. “And then when I quit engineering and went to BUC and felt I was back in my element, I kept on painting.” At first he avoided exhibitions. “I wasn’t really interested in selling the paintings-I just wanted to enjoy myself, painting topics of my choice in oils.” During the war, the stress became too much, and he stopped painting. Three years ago, nagged by an inner desire, Matthews resumed painting. “When I returned, I couldn’t understand how I could ever have given it up.” He says he is now preparing to exhibit. Matthews recently showed three of his paintings at an AUB exhibition in West Hall, sponsored jointly by the Center for Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies and the Art Club. He sold two of his paintings. AUB itself is another of Henry Matthews’ passions. During some of the worst years of the war, he remained in his small Hamra apartment so he could get to the office every day. “In September 1989, the AUB Bulletin was literally produced under fire. I kept changing the cover headline to record the total number of shells that hit the campus in the fierce shelling war-84 shells.” His work in the Office of Information and Public Relations has prompted a passion for AUB history. Matthews believes the OIPR should publish a periodical, to be entitled AUB History, to preserve and document the achievements of the University from the introduction of co-education to open-heart surgery and beyond. Rescuing suffering animals is also one of Matthews’ prime concerns. Some incidents he remembers sharply. On April 18, 1989, in the midst of sudden shelling on the way from campus he picked up a frightened, injured cat and kept running. The cat survived, but lost a leg. “That’s when I really started my one-man campaign trying to help animals, mainly cats and dogs." Matthews is happy that changes in attitudes towards animals have evolved on campus. “I think In a small way, I helped begin this awakening to the beauty and value of animal life," he said. “And now many people are doing much more than I. Happily, we now have a president who cares for animals.” Henry Matthews, a vital member of the Office of Information and Public Relations, continues the enthusiastic pursuit of his many passions, which also include swimming at the AUB Beach, writing poetry, and documenting the history of aerospace exploration.
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