Ramez Sarkis Is Dead

The man has died whose loss bereaves Lebanon of his idealism, the purity of his heart, and the cleanness of his conscience. He gathered the loftiest of merits and the most splendid of the qualities of manhood, and joined modesty and gentleness to pride and dignity of soul; all of these shone forth in him in their finest human and moral forms, and won him the people's love and esteem — when he was appointed Minister of National Education in 1941, and then when he was elected deputy for Beirut in 1951. Ramez Sarkis was, as everyone knew him, the man of patriotism, of high-mindedness, and of enterprise — the model of the citizen responsible for whatever he devoted himself to, working for it with his heart and his mind, and with a man's faith in the immortality of great work and of the proud soul.

The deceased was born in Beirut in 1889, and received his education at the institutes of the "Prussia," the Patriarchate, and the American University of Beirut. From there he turned to journalism, which he practiced from 1908 to 1941 in his newspaper "Lisan al-Hal." He was elected repeatedly head of the Press Syndicate, and took part in numerous official, charitable, and social bodies, in all of which he was the best apostle of right, of reform, and of constructive progress — with sacrifice, fidelity, and sincerity.