Westmont Magazine A Regal Event

When Queen Noor of Jordan agreed to address a Youth for Peace Rally April 8 in Murchison Gymnasium, she didn’t realize her father had once studied in buildings on the Westmont campus.

Najeeb Halaby, who served as head of the Federal Aviation Administration and president of Pan Am World Airways, lived in Santa Barbara and attended the Deane School for Boys in the 1930s. The college purchased the four Deane School buildings in the 1960s, and they now house faculty offices and classrooms.

John Murray, director  of library services at Westmont, presented Queen Noor with photos of her father he found in Deane school publications preserved in the college archives.

The queen came to Santa Barbara to receive a posthumous award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for her late husband, King Hussein of Jordan.

Craig Kielburger, 17-year-old founder of the international children’s organization Free the Children, and his brother, Mark, conducted Peace Leadership Training workshops for high school and college students  and invited Queen Noor to speak at the rally. More than 500 people attended.

Craig also spoke April 10 for the Westmont Foundation Political Science Lecture series.