Health, technology center gets big boost
LAWRENCE - For more than 30 years, Egyptian immigrant and Andover resident Ibrahim El-Hefni dedicated his life to helping poor residents in Lawrence. The Cairo-educated engineer anonymously spent millions of his own money on scholarships, especially for immigrant students, and donated generously to heath centers in Lawrence.
Two years after his death, Hefni is still lending the city and its residents a helping hand.
A foundation started by Hefni announced last week that it is donating $1 million to the planned Northern Essex Community College Allied Health and Technology Center in downtown Lawrence. The community college says the money will be used on high-tech equipment for its student programs.
The college's board recently voted unanimously to recommend to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education naming the health and tech center after Hefni, said college president David Hartleb. "He was a man who dedicated his life to helping other people," said Hartleb. "He believed that education was key to personal and economic advancement."
It is fitting that the new center will serve a large immigrant student population in a largely immigrant city, Hartleb said.
Hefni moved to the United States in 1959 after receiving an engineering degree from the University of Cairo and a PhD in electrical engineering from Sheffield University in England. After working at Bell Labs and Lincoln Labs, he started his own company, Microwave Research Corp., in the early 1970s in the basement of his North Andover home with $3,000, said his daughter, Suzanne Wright. The company, which sold instruments for airport guidance systems, became successful and soon employed hundreds.
"My father believed in the American Dream," said Wright, a lawyer in California. "He knew that the secret of living that dream meant access to higher education."
For that reason, Wright said, Hefni started and continued to fund scholarships for immigrant students. "My father didn't believe in handouts," she said. "But he knew some people just couldn't afford to go to school. If you worked hard and wanted to achieve the American Dream, he believed you deserved a chance like he did."
In addition to pushing education, Hefni was also an advocate for quality healthcare, for personal reasons. At a young age, Hefni contracted hepatitis C. Battling the disease his whole life, he gave money to research groups in the United States and Egypt that were working to eradicate the disease.
Hefni died in May 2005.
Wright is happy that her father's name will go on an education center focusing on health and technology, and is proud his common Arabic name will be prominent on something so positive. "It shows that immigrants from that part of the world are doing great things for this country," she said.
Last year, the Lawrence City Council voted to donate the land that houses the In-Town Mall to the community college so the school could build the $22.8 million health and technology center downtown. Officials are hoping that the new center will change the face of the city's center, much like the University of Massachusetts did for downtown Lowell. The health and tech center will also house a retail bookstore, a cybercafe, and restaurants.
The building will be funded by a state capital bond.
Hartleb said work on tearing down the In-Town Mall should begin soon, and asbestos will be removed using a federal grant.
The City Council recently approved a plan by Mayor Michael J. Sullivan to change Essex Street to a two-way street in preparation for the new center and to attract new businesses.
Wright said if there was one thing future students should know about her father, it would be of his commitment to education and community.
"He'd want them to know that if you work hard, you'll be successful in your educational and professional career," she said. "But you'll also have an obligation to give back."
Russell Contreras can be reached at rcontreras@globe.com.
