In Memoriam

Ambassador Saidullah Khan Dehlavi
(1941–2014)

Ambassador Dehlavi, Chairman of the AKU Board of Trustees, passed away on February 4, 2014, in Karachi at the age of 72. Ambassador Dehlavi demonstrated an unequivocal commitment to the vision and mission of AKU. He helped move forward several AKU initiatives, particularly the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Karachi.

Throughout his tenure, he took a special interest in ensuring that the University continued to encourage pluralism in all its endeavours and in assisting less privileged students in receiving the support they needed to succeed. Ambassador Dehlavi became a member of the Board in 2000 and Chairman in 2001. A career diplomat, he retired in 2001 as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the European Union, having served as Ambassador to France and as Permanent Delegate to UNESCO in Paris. He was also Ambassador to Switzerland, the Vatican, Yugoslavia, Albania and Ireland.

His decorations include the Légion d’honneurfrom France. In remembering Ambassador Dehlavi, we celebrate the immense contribution he made to the development of AKU, and we draw strength from his deep belief in the value of pluralism.

Dr Tom Kessinger
(1941–2014)

Dr Kessinger, a Member of the AKU Board of Trustees since 2008, passed away on July 4, 2014, at the age of 73. Dr Kessinger began his career as an academic, earning his PhD at the University of Chicago and teaching South Asian history at the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania. He then joined the Ford Foundation, where he was the foundation’s representative for Southeast Asia, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, and later for South Asia, based in New Delhi, India. He left the Ford Foundation to become President of Haverford College, his alma mater, where he served for eight years.

Dr Kessinger’s involvement with the Aga Khan Development Network dated to 1996, when he became General Manager of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. For 10 years, beginning in 2002, he was General Manager of the Aga Khan Foundation. As chairman of the AKU Board’s Resource Development Committee, Dr Kessinger helped to establish a permanent fundraising programme within the University to assure its continuing vitality. His insights regarding the need for AKU’s governance to evolve as the University expanded internationally, and into the complexity of quality assurance across campuses, were invaluable.