Horus Schenouda Obituary

HORUS SCHENOUDA, September 18, 1917 - May 31, 2010

On May 31, 2010, Franklin College lost a treasured friend, beloved professor and illuminating spirit for generations of students when Dr. Horus Schenouda died at the age of 93. A life that was filled with contrasts brought Dr. Schenouda to Lugano by a circuitous route. Born a Coptic Christian in Alexandria, Egypt, he was educated by Jesuits. However, his father, who was fascinated by the ancient gods and pharaohs, named Horus and his brothers and sisters after ancient deities such as Anubis, Osiris and Isis. Horus was an ancient Egyptian god with the head of a falcon whose eyes were the sun and the moon, and the pharaohs were called living incarnations of him.

Dr. Schenouda was educated as a lawyer and practiced law for 15 years in Cairo, where he also created a publishing house, “Editions Horus.” However, revolution and political unrest forced him and his Scottish wife Sandra to move on to Paris, where he taught at the Sorbonne (from which he had earned a Ph.D. in literature). The May 1968 student revolution cut short his long-term possibilities there and he happened to see an advertisement in the International Herald Tribune from Fleming College in Lugano, for the position of housemaster. Given his excellent academic credentials, he accepted that position with his typical humility and dignity. His talents were immediately recognized and he soon became the iconic and enthusiastic teacher and superb storyteller who would inspire many student generations.

Further upheaval in 1970 led to the birth of Franklin College, where Dr. Schenouda taught with inspiration and passion for almost 20 years, bringing to life such courses as Russian Civilization, Islamic Civilization and the Middle East in World Affairs. He was also a favorite Academic Travel leader to various Mediterranean destinations such as Greece, Tunisia, Turkey and Spain.

Dr. Schenouda was a linguist and spoke Arabic, French, English and Italian fluently. His retirement from teaching in 1987 gave him more time for his other passion, writing poetry, and he is internationally acclaimed as a francophone writer and poet. (Francophone, which means French-speaking, refers specifically to people who, regardless of being born outside France, speak French as a mother tongue and whose cultural background is primarily French in spite of an ethnic or geographical background elsewhere. The francophone culture is a legacy of the French colonial empire.) He wrote his poetry and novels only in French and his books have evocative and intriguing titles such as Phantasmes (Phantoms, 1942), Le Théatre des Anges (The Theater of Angels, 2000), Égypte mille matins (Egypt of a Thousand Mornings, 2002),  Lugano: Le Retour de Schéhérazade (Lugano: The Return of Schéhérazade, 2002).

An anthology of francophone poets and writers is soon to be published which devotes an entire chapter to Dr. Schenouda. The authors, Marc Kober and Jean-Jacques Luthi, intellectuals and scholars from Paris, visited him several times and interviewed him extensively. In fact, Kober’s last visit was a month before Dr. Schenouda’s death. On that occasion he also visited Franklin College, taking dozens of photographs in his desire to retrace Dr. Schenouda’s steps. Dr. Schenouda was humbled and honored, but also amused, by such fervent attention, confessing that he preferred spending time at the lake feeding the pragmatic and playful ducks, who in their unself-conscious innocence are never pretentious or proud, to hashing over philosophy.

Dr. Schenouda, who lost his beloved wife in 1982, is survived by two daughters. Although he rarely returned to Egypt, he once said that the ducks and reflections of sunlight on the lake of Lugano kept alive his memories of the Nile, and Monte San Salvatore evoked for him the pyramids. Dr. Schenouda was a descendant of the pharaohs, and the title of his last book of poetry, Le Pharaon sans tombeau—the pharaoh without a tomb—is especially haunting and prophetic because he will always live in the hearts of the hundreds of students, readers and friends whom he has left behind all over the world.

Franklin College has received messages and tributes from friends and students of Dr. Schenouda and also some wonderful photographs. If you would like to add a comment to be inserted with the following messages on our website please send it to the Advancement Office.

Several alumni have asked the College to create a memorial fund to honor Dr. Schenouda. If you would like to make a gift, please access the online giving form and enter “Horus Schenouda” in the comment line. You may also send a gift via post to Franklin College, The Graybar Building, 420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 2746, New York, NY 10170.

Some of the comments and photos we have received follow:

“…the word that always comes to my mind when thinking of Horus is 'civilized.' Wherever we were, and whatever we were doing, Horus always seemed to have that calm, reflective attitude that brought peace to most situations. I think that the only time that I saw him both puzzled and perhaps a little angry was once on a night train during Academic Travel to Paris when faced with that narrow strip of linen provided to cover the edge of a scratchy blanket in a railway couchette. I watched him put one hand in each end, stretch it out, examine it, screw it up and throw it into a corner. He then lay down, crossed his hands on his chest and immediately fell asleep.  He was a civilized man!”  - Professor Brian Stanford

“Dr. Horus Schenouda opened the world for me. I took his Russian History course in the fall of 1973. I thought his teaching style was unlike anything I had ever experienced. He made the House of Rurik through the House of Romanoff both personal and memorable. He told us about the people who made history. He explained that they were human and as such had strengths and weaknesses. He showed us how that played out. I was intrigued. His view of world history was so much more interesting than the dry dates I had been told to memorize in high school. His dramatic rhetoric mesmerized me. I was enthralled both by history and certainly by Horus Schenouda. Later I was lucky enough to meet Sandra, his wife. Learning of their lives before Lugano was a lesson in history as well. I traveled with Dr. Schenouda to Tunisia on a Franklin trip and later met him and Sandra in Cairo. It was their first trip back after their expulsion by Nasser. 

I loved hearing his stories over the year I spent in Lugano. I credit him with making history a part of my life and making me love history, making me see, hear and smell history. My hope is that future students at Franklin (and everywhere else) get lucky and fall under the spell of a magician as talented as Dr. Horus Schenouda. I used to laugh: he said he spoke nine-and-a-half languages and English was his half language. I always wished I could speak another language to appreciate his use of language in one of those other languages. Since I thought his use of English outshone that of almost anyone I knew, I wondered what his use of language would be in those other languages. Unfortunately I never learned. He was an incredible man and definitely my getting to know him was what made my time at Franklin a turning point in my life. He turned me on to learning, to history, to the fun in learning history. For me he was definitely unforgettable.”  - Trudy Toll ’75

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Jacques Villaret and Wilfried Geens, founders of the College, sent photos of “our great friend” as well as Trudy Toll '75. They can be viewed in the Photo Gallery below.

Photos of Horus Schenouda