Abdel Messih Abdalla Meawad, the longest serving employee in the history of the American University in Cairo, recalls his many decades of service to the university, from the mid-1940s through the mid 2000s (he would serve over a decade more after the date of the interview). He recounts his upbringing as a Copt in Old Cairo, schooling, and how he obtained his first job at AUC. Abdel Messih depicts AUC’s transformation from a diverse but small, tight knit community to a larger, more established institution. He tells of starting as a staff member in the Mail Room and later transferring to Accounts, Purchasing, and Buildings and Grounds, and shares anecdotes about relations with his bosses, the Business Managers. He explains his role in establishing and serving the Housing Department in the 1960s, and his ultimate move to AUC’s Travel Office where he long served as Airport Clearing manager. Recollections are given of Presidents and other administrators, faculty, staff, and students he interacted with, as well as descriptions of the downtown Tahrir Square campus its surrounding neighborhood, and how they changed. He addresses Egyptian-American relations and the status of AUC as a foreign institution in Egypt, and relates conflicts AUC witnessed (including British soldiers in Ewart Hall during World War II and the required evacuation of foreign faculty and staff during the 1967 War). Abdel Messih speaks of AUC’s impact and legacy in Egypt, emphasizes its spirit of family through the years, anticipates the transition to its suburban new campus, and expresses his hopes for AUC’s future
