Mrs. Suad Saqr Ammar was born in Ain Ebel, a small village on the border of southern Lebanon, to parents who valued education at a time when most girls were not expected to attend college. When she received her bachelor’s degree in Arabic Literature, Suad became the first woman in the region to earn a college degree.
Upon emigrating with her family to the United States in the early seventies, Suad earned her second degree, a master’s in Library and Information Science, and started a new life. She worked at the Placentia Library in Southern California for almost three decades. In addition to her Librarian/Library Administrator’s duties, Suad was the principle force behind projects aimed to enhance the lives of those in her community. Notably, she co-founded the first library sponsored Literacy Volunteers of America Chapter and worked with the late First Lady Barbara Bush on implementing the Family Literacy Program focused on eradicating illiteracy in America. The program was emulated in many libraries across the state and touched and changed thousands of lives. In the early eighties, Suad conceived, developed, directed, and delivered, through the California Library System, a cultural exposition entitled The Gulf Arab States: Beyond Oil, Camels, and Sand Dunes . The exposition introduced Californians to a part of the world about which they knew very little.
Upon her retirement, by a proclamation from the then Governor Grey Davis, Suad was awarded December 23rd, 1999 as the state’s Suad Ammar Day in appreciation of her many outstanding achievements.
Alongside Suad’s professional life were several key leadership roles in the Lebanese community. With Lebanon in turmoil since shortly after of her immigration, Suad became very active in the eighties in the American Lebanese League, serving as the Secretary to the Orange County Chapter. She was also a founding member of the Saint John Maron Church in Orange, California where she still worships regularly.
In her free time, Suad enjoys gardening and, one day, hopes to be able to translate her late father’s journals which depict life and politics in Lebanon and Syria in the 1920’s through the 1970’s. Suad has four loving children and four adoring grandsons across four states.