Samir Fares was a colleague I came to know well at Intermarkets and as I accompanied him on his IAA journey. Samir’s communications career, as told to me, had started at Al Hayat newspaper, the Arabic language daily published by the well-known journalist Kamel Mroueh. Al Hayat was one of the first media to carry the pan-Arab label, and Samir was its advertising manager. This role made Samir travel to Japan before many of his colleagues, at a time when Japanese advertisers were the main spenders in the Middle East.
Many stories were told about Samir including one which said that the Air Crew Department at British Airways, conducted a survey to investigate the personal travel habits and social life of their female cabin crew when they are overseas. Amongst the questions they asked, was one related to hanging out with men at the different layover cities. Many admitted that they did so, at the St. Georges Hotel in Beirut, where they always stay. Many said that they often hang out with an amusing tall Lebanese named Samir Fares.
Samir was a horse rider and later married a riding colleague called May Rabbat. The couple had a baby boy they named Karim, who grew up to become Lebanon’s show jumping champion. Samir’s maternal uncle, Fouad Pharaon, was the founder of the first ad agency in Lebanon. When his uncle passed away, his wife called on Samir to leave Al Hayat and assist her in managing Pharaon Advertising. This he did before taking the agency into the Intermarkets merger with MEMAS and HIMA.
It was at Intermarkets that I first met Samir, who was vice president in charge of corporate affairs and public relations. My first impression of this tall, trendily dressed vice president, who resembled Victor Mature, a well-known actor of the period, was built watching his prompt response to all the telexes he received. From him, I learned that an urgent communication required an instant reply, even if only acknowledging receipt. When the security situation in Beirut deteriorated, Samir moved to the Phoenicia Hotel and became our sole link with the outside world. This made him a heavy user of the hotel’s telecommunications services, and this is how and why Samir, and I became very close. We were in constant contact as I exchanged messages with Ceylon Tea, Westinghouse, and our other regional clients.
Samir was the first partner to join me in Dubai in late 1975. There I seconded Tony Housseini to become his assistant, as he always needed a dynamic young person next to him to function at his best. After a time, Samir called me and Tony to break the news of his plan to re-marry, following his divorce with May Rabbat. He also wanted to ask for our assistance in the arrangements. On the set day, Samir put on a white suit and asked Tony to ensure that the company car was washed, and its interior was sprayed with his preferred fragrance. We were also told that the Mrs. Fares to-be was called Sonia Chaccour from Ain Zhalta, my hometown. It was mid-August, the temperature and humidity in Dubai were unbearable and the MEA flight from Beirut was due at 8pm, just when residents were approaching the point of, we-are-unable-to-take-anymore. Tony picked us up from Samir’s flat and we drove towards the airport. We were giggling and joking when the car suddenly jerked and stopped. Tony slapped his forehead, as he began apologizing to Samir for failing to fill up the gasoline tank. At that instant, Samir lost his temper and started swearing at Tony for taking his girlfriends out in the company car and forgetting his responsibilities. We were still close to the InterContinental Hotel and there were no gasoline stations except beyond the Toyota building, so Samir kicked Tony out from behind the steering wheel and took his place, asking both Tony and me to push the big Chevrolet all the way to the service station. Until today I have been unable to figure out how, with the humidity at 100 per cent and the heat at 41°C, we succeeded in pushing the car and Samir all that distance in our suits and neckties.
Sadly, the wedding drama was hardly worth the trouble as Sonia left Samir suddenly and travelled back to Lebanon via Ras Al Khaimah with the help of a fighter who belonged to the Lebanese Forces. When she surfaced again, she had become Mrs. Chaanine and before long her sister married Bill Bird, our old Cable & Wireless client, who, in turn, surfaced in Beirut as advisor to the Lebanese president.
Samir married a third time, to an old BA flame called Lucille, who accompanied him to the IAA World Congress in Australia. It was there that I realized the levels of friendship he had cultivated all around the world, to the extent that he was unanimously voted world president of the IAA, becoming the first Arab to hold the position. However, even though I was delighted for Samir, I was shocked by the passive reaction of the Lebanese delegation towards his achievement. In fact, they were happier when the Lebanon chapter won the IAA’s Golden Tulip Award that year. Sadly, from that moment on, I became convinced that my countrymen tended to politicize everything they touched.
We returned to Dubai, where Samir continued to share his great disappointment with me until early one day in August 1988, Lucille called crying to tell me that Samir had passed away in hospital. It was a shocking personal experience, losing a coach, a friend and such a dear colleague. A sad personal experience that was amplified by the reality of having to attend to the funeral service and the complicated formalities of shipping the coffin back to Lebanon for burial.