Najeeb Halaby

Business executive, lawyer, and government official

• Born: November 19, 1915
• Place of Birth: Dallas, Texas
• Died: July 2, 2003
• Place of Death: McLean, Virginia

Najeeb Halaby was a naval aviator, lawyer, author, and business executive. His many roles in business and government included head of the Federal Aviation Agency (later renamed the Federal Aviation Administration), chief executive officer of Pan American World Airways, and president of Halaby International Corporation. He was also the father of Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor al-Hussein of Jordan.

Areas of achievement: Government and politics, business, law

Early Life

Najeeb Elias Halaby Jr. was born in Dallas, Texas, on November 19, 1915. He was the only child of Najeeb Elias Halaby, an importer and Arab immigrant from Syria, and Laura Wilkins, an interior designer and native of Texas. After his parents divorced in 1927, Halaby attended Rippowam School in New York. Less than a year later his father died. Halaby and his mother moved to Santa Barbara, California. His mother married Urban B. Koen, and they relocated to Los Angeles. Soon thereafter, Halaby was sent to Glen Arbor, Michigan, to attend Leelanau, a boys’ residential school. While in high school, Halaby earned his student pilot’s license.

In 1937, Halaby earned a bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University. After attending a year of graduate school at the University of Michigan’s School of Law, he transferred to Yale University. Halaby earned his law degree at Yale and entered the California bar in 1940. While practicing law at the Los Angeles firm O’Melveny & Meyers, Halaby joined the federal Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) and trained to become a flight instructor. He became a production test pilot for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in 1942. The next year, he joined the service as a naval aviator and spent the duration of World War II performing flight tests of jet-powered aircrafts.

Life’s Work

Halaby left the navy and married Doris Carlquist on February 9, 1946. They would have three children together, Lisa, Christian, and Alexa.

Also in 1946, Halaby joined the Office of Research and Intelligence, a branch of the State Department. Two years later, he became an aviation intelligence officer and foreign-affairs adviser for the secretary of defense. He served as a civil aviation adviser to King Ibn Saud Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia and was admitted to the District of Columbia bar in 1948. In 1953, the Junior Chamber of Commerce honored Halaby as an outstanding federal employee.

From 1953 to 1956, Halaby worked for venture capitalist Laurance Rockefeller. During that period, he also became vice-chairman of a White House Aviation Facilities’ Study Group, which prepared the Curtis Report on modernizing airport facilities. After leaving Rockefeller, Halaby served as executive vice president of Servo-Mechanisms, Inc.

On March 3, 1961, Halaby became the head of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA; today the Federal Aviation Administration) under President John F. Kennedy. He served in this capacity for four years, during which time he improved connections with the Civil Aeronautics Board, created a flight academy in Oklahoma, introduced security programs at airports, desegregated US airport terminals, and helped update air-traffic control systems.

After serving the FAA, Halaby became senior vice president for Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). He served as vice president, then president, and, beginning in 1969, chair and chief executive officer of the company. Although financial constraints were caused by a multitude of problems, including recession, inflation, gas prices, and high production costs of the recently purchased Boeing 747, the Pan Am board blamed Halaby for business woes and forced him to resign in 1972.

During the next few years, Halaby focused his attentions on his investment business, Halaby International Corporation, which provided technical and design support to countries in the Middle East. Halaby also became a civil aviation adviser to King Hussein I of Jordan—his future son-in-law—and helped establish an aviation academy for aspiring Arab pilots.

The late 1970s brought about a number of changes in Halaby’s personal life. Halaby and his wife, Doris, divorced in 1977. The next year, Halaby published his reflections in Crosswings: An Airman’s Memoir (1978). In June 1978, his elder daughter, Lisa, married King Hussein, becoming Queen Noor al-Hussein of Jordan. On October 1, 1980, Halaby married Jane Coates.

From 1985 to 1988, Halaby served as chair of the Dulles Access Rapid Transit, Inc. (DartRail), an effort that tried unsuccessfully to create a rail link between Washington, DC, and Dulles International Airport. Halaby chaired the Save the Children Foundation from 1992 to 1998.

After the death of his second wife in 1996, Halaby wed Libby Cater. He died in his home in McLean, Virginia, on July 2, 2003.

Significance

Halaby was among the first pilots to test jet-powered aircraft. He was a leader in American aviation, strongly advocating the use of the jumbo jet for commercial flights. He was one of the first Arab Americans to hold a high position in the US government. His many and varied positions in the US government included naval aviator, adviser to the Secretary of State, special assistant to the Economic Cooperation Administration, and vice-chairman of the Aviation Facilities Study Group. Halaby was also a guest lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles. He chaired the board of trustees of the American University of Beirut and those of several other organizations as well. He also served on banking and industry boards. Despite all his accomplishments, Halaby is best known as the father of Queen Noor and father-in-law of King Hussein I.

Bibliography

Devlin, Cynthia Marshall. "Halaby, Najeeb Elias, Jr. [Jeeb] (1915-2003)." Texas State Historical Association, 24 Apr. 2024, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/halaby-najeeb-elias-jr-jeeb. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.

Halaby, Najeeb E. Crosswinds: An Airman’s Memoir. New York: Doubleday, 1978. Print.

---. “Mobilization of Our Western Allies.” Thinking Ahead for Business. Ed. Edward C. Bursk. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1952. Print.

Hussein, Noor. Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life. New York: Miramax, 2003. Print.

Stout, David G. “Najeeb E. Halaby, Former Airline Executive, Dies at 87.” New York Times, 3 July 2003: A20. Print.