Al Hussein, Noor

Noor Al Hussein (b.1951). An American-born Jordanian philanthropist and social activist who is the fourth wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan. She was Queen of Jordan from their marriage on June 15, 1978, until Hussein’s death on February 7, 1999.

In 2015, Queen Noor received Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson Award for her public service.

11/15/11: Jim Luce met Queen Noor and had photo at SoHo House, NYC.

6/20/10: Jim Luce published Queen Noor at Soliya on Obama, Islam and Interpersonal Global Communications (HuffPo).

Jim Luce with H.M. Queen Noor of Jordan in New York City (see photo below).

[DRAFT]

Queen Noor was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby in Washington, D.C., U.S., the eldest child of Najeeb Halaby (1915–2003) and Doris Carlquist (1918–2015). Her paternal family is Syrian; her maternal family is Swedish American.

Her father was raised a Christian Scientist[5] and was a Navy experimental test pilot, an airline executive, and government official. He served as an aide to the U.S. Secretary of Defense in the Truman administration, before being appointed by President John F. Kennedy to head the Federal Aviation Administration.

Najeeb Halaby also had a private-sector career, serving as CEO of Pan American World Airways from 1969 to 1972.

The children were raised nominally Episcopalian. Najeeb and Doris divorced in 1977.[5] Doris, who was of Swedish descent, died on December 25, 2015, aged 97.[6]

Halaby attended schools in New York and California before entering National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. from fourth to eighth grade. She attended the Chapin School in New York City for two years, and then went on to graduate from Concord Academy.

She entered Princeton University with its first coeducational freshman class and received an A.B. in architecture and urban planning in 1974 after completing a 32-page long senior thesis titled “96th Street and Second Avenue.”

After she graduated from Princeton, Halaby moved to Australia, where she worked for a firm that specialized in planning new towns, with a burgeoning interest in the Middle East. Because of Halaby’s Syrian roots, this had special appeal for her.

After a year, in 1975, she accepted a job offer from Llewelyn Davies, a British architectural and planning firm, which had been employed to design a model capital city center in Tehran, Iran.

When increasing political instability forced the company to relocate to the UK, she traveled to the Arab world and decided to apply to Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism while taking a temporary aviation facility research job in Amman.

Eventually, she left Arab Air and accepted a job with Alia Airlines to become Director of Facilities Planning and Design.

Halaby and the king became friends while he was still mourning the death of his third wife. Their friendship evolved and the couple became engaged in 1978.

Before her marriage, she accepted her husband’s Sunni Islamic religion and upon the marriage, changed her name from Lisa Halaby to the royal name Noor Al Hussein (“Light of Hussein”). The wedding was a traditional Muslim ceremony.

Noor assumed management of the royal household and three stepchildren, Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein and Abir Muhaisen (her husband’s children by Queen Alia).[