Raymond N. Bitar's Obituary
Raymond was born on February 22, 1931 in Idlib, Syria. His father, Najeeb Bitar, owned olive groves, and they were exceedingly close to each other. Raymond was the fifth born out of five boys. He never really knew his mother Mounira, who became catatonic after tragically losing a sixth (female) sibling at the age of one.Raymond had a high school education and only attended one year of college, after which he was wooed by the communist party in what was then fascist Syria. In his late teens and early twenties he gained reputation as a rather charismatic communist firebrand and speaker. Raymond was invited by the party to meet higher-ups in Romania, which was ruled by the totalitarian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu at the time. Raymond’s idealistic vision and communist dream of ‘robbing from the rich in order to give to the poor’ was shattered by the opulence and decadence he saw in the Romanian party elite. Returning to Syria he was captured and tortured, but with inside assistance fled to Lebanon at the age of twenty one.It was in Lebanon that Raymond met Mary Ann Nassimian in Middle East College, a Seventh-Day Adventist institution. They would eventually marry in 1955, have three children, and amidst the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, leave for the United States. Raymond became a real estate developer and business owner for twenty five years and would retire at the age of fifty five.The Tierrasanta Seventh-Day Adventist Church was his religious home for the past twenty five plus years or so. At church he garnered many life-long friends and was well-loved.Raymond had a truly great sense of humor his whole life. He was always playful and humorous. He loved tennis, politics (and was a Republican), painting, dancing, crosswords, and food. He loved to tell the story of how he won a table tennis championship on his sea voyage to the United States from Lebanon. Most of all, he was a family man, a loving husband and father who provided and protected. Raymond will always be remembered for his truly sharp and mischievous sense of humor, but in the last, it was his love and devotion to his wife and children that will resonate with us all.
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