The Eloquence of a Master Mentor

There are few who walk among us who can truly inspire. Not merely to be in awe, but to want to rise up and change the world around us, and by doing so become sources of inspiration ourselves.

When I first met Galal Amin, I had already heard much about him. He had already earned by the sweat of his brow the reputation of a cultural icon – some would say celebrity. It also happened that his two sons were my friends, one of whom was a classmate, and on occasion, I would visit their home in Maadi.

I exchanged few words with him then.

But it wouldn’t be until I took a Scientific Thinking class with him that I came to learn of his wealth of knowledge and his abundance of relevant anecdotes which shed a better understanding of the world around us.

His background and experiences were treasure troves of learning and he impacted every one of us in his class.

However, it wasn’t simply a matter of his sagacious nature – or his uncanny prescience – that many found appealing. It was also to a large extent his ability to connect with students and peers alike.

He was a master orator in tone and substance, often mixing humor with hard real-life lessons.

He accorded students the type of respect and acceptance lacking elsewhere.

I bought some of his writings in Arabic and English, and followed his columns in the local press.

The ability to learn is directly proportional to the teacher/mentor/professor’s joy in teaching. And Galal Amin truly enjoyed hearing our points of view. And you could tell he enjoyed sharing his stories with young, eager minds.

“I’ve enjoyed teaching at AUC and I love teaching. It is a pleasant place to be in from every respect,” Amin told The Caravan in May 2011, shortly after announcing his retirement from AUC.

But he remained active in socio-economics and politics, delivering a lecture at AUC in November 2013 calling for a third revolution to ensure reviving the then failing economy.

Seven months later, he would be proven right.

Egypt and the Arab World now mourn the passing of a great national treasure, a man who embodied the spirit of becoming the best we can be.