Obituary of Mahassen Rifaat

Mrs. Mahassen Souna Sadek Rifaat, age 72, died on Sunday, April 23, 2006 at Calvary Hospital, Bronx, NY after a courageous two year struggle with colon cancer. Mrs. Rifaat was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt and for the past 36 years has lived in Watchung. She loved books and was an avid reader of literature. Mrs. Rifaat worked for Rutgers University in New Brunswick as a Librarian. She was a member of The American Library Association and obtained her Masters Degree from the University of Toronto in Library Science in 1969. She received a BA in Literature from the University of Alexandria, Egypt in 1962. She lived and worked in Kuwait, The U.A.E. and most recently Qatar, where she was in charge of establishing the new library for the Art School at the Virginia Commonwealth University campus there. She retired in 2003. Although she was often oversees during the past 25 years, she was most happy when at her and her husbands home on Valley Rd. in Watchung. She is survived by her husband, Ismail Rifaat; her two sons, Adel Rifaat of Watchung and Alaadin Sami of Saudi Arabia; one daughter, Mona Rifaat of Dubai, UAE; one brother Moheb Sadek; a sister Amina Sadek and 5 grandchildren, Amr Sami, Susanne Sami, Adam Rifaat, Hannah Campbell and Alia Campbell. The funeral service will be held on Thursday, April 27th at 1:00 p.m. in the Higgins Home for Funerals, 752 Mountain Boulevard, Watchung. Entombment will be in Somerset Hills Memorial Park, Basking Ridge. Visitation will be from 11 to 1:00 p.m. prior to the service.