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Dr. Abolfath Ardalan: An Iranian Kurdish
Engineer Escaped Iran after revolution
21.9.2007
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September 21, 2007
Abolfath Ardalan, 77┼,
a Kurd and former Iranian navy admiral who became an
engineer and professor in the Washington area after
a daring escape from his homeland after the 1979
revolution, died Aug. 31 of cirrhosis of the liver
at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He lived in Vienna.
In 1973, Dr. Ardalan was selected by the shah of
Iran to direct a new national company, Iran
Electronics Industries (IEI).
Based in the city of Shiraz, IEI became an acclaimed
research, technology and manufacturing center, with
an emphasis on developing advanced weapon systems
for the military.
The company had working agreements with many
high-tech firms in the United States, and Dr.
Ardalan founded an English-language school in Shiraz
for IEI's 3,000 employees, many of whom were
Americans and Europeans.
But growing unrest among Iran's religious leaders
and students would lead to the country's Islamic
revolution, which forced the shah to flee in January
1979. Military leaders, businessmen and associates
of the shah -- Dr. Ardalan qualified on all three
counts -- fell under suspicion in the new regime.
Dr. Ardalan, who had managed to send his family
abroad, went into hiding in late 1979. He obtained a
false passport and left his home in Tehran for his
native region of Iranian Kurdistan and disguised
himself as a Kurdish peasant.
Paying smugglers to lead him out of the country, he
walked over rugged mountain passes in the middle of
the night to cross from Iran into Turkey.
Dr. Ardalan's family knew that other Iranian
military leaders had been executed, and for days
they had no idea where he was.
He eventually made his way through Kurdish territory
to Istanbul, then flew to Germany, where he
disclosed his true identity to U.S. and German
authorities and was reunited with his family. Their
house and all of their other possessions had been
abandoned in Iran.
In 1980, Dr. Ardalan and his family arrived in
Northern Virginia and lived with his sister, the
wife of a diplomat. Calling on acquaintances he had
made in Iran, Dr. Ardalan found an engineering job
with Westinghouse near Baltimore. When he was in his
60s, he went back to school at night and received a
PhD in engineering management from George Washington
University in 1993.
Soon after, Dr. Ardalan began teaching graduate
courses at the University of Maryland's University
College, and he taught occasionally at Catholic
University and GWU. He retired from the classroom
last year but continued to work with students online
until recent months. He also had a consulting
business and advised governments on technology and
military matters.
Dr. Ardalan was a leader in Washington's Iranian
exile community, but he refused to pine for what he
had lost in the revolution.
"That was one of the most remarkable things about
him," said Victor Tomseth, a retired U.S. diplomat
who first met him in 1976 in Shiraz. "A lesser
person could have justifiably complained about all
that had been lost in Iran. He never complained.
Abol's approach was that things happen, and he just
moved on."
Dr. Ardalan was born into a prominent Iranian
Kurdish family. His father was governor of the
province of Gorgan and held other posts in the
country's imperial government. (Later, after Dr.
Ardalan's escape, his 94-year-old father was jailed
for a month.)
As a young man, Dr. Ardalan studied engineering in
England and, in 1956, was one of the first graduates
of the newly formed Iranian naval academy. He
quickly rose through the ranks and came to the
United States in 1963 to study at the U.S. Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. He received
a second bachelor's degree in mathematics and a
master's degree in engineering before returning to
Iran in 1967.
He worked at the Iranian navy headquarters in Tehran
for six years before being named to run the
state-owned electronics company, which remains in
operation.
In 1981, Dr. Ardalan put in a bid to buy a house in
Vienna. The real estate agent then asked a neighbor
whether he would object if an Iranian family moved
in. The neighbor was Tomseth, who had been captured
by Iranian revolutionaries Nov. 4, 1979, and held
hostage for 444 days.
When Tomseth learned the name of his new neighbor,
he and his wife took over a bottle of champagne and
knocked on the door of their old friend.
"We've been friends and neighbors ever since,"
Tomseth said.
Dr. Ardalan's survivors include his wife of 51
years, Mahvash Ardalan of Vienna; three children,
Faroukh Ardalan of Vienna, Babak Ardalan of Los
Angeles and Roshan Alavi of Great Falls; two
sisters, Chirin Goushbeigui of Vienna and Parvaneh
Ardalan of Tehran; a brother, Samad Ardalan of
Dusseldorf, Germany; and six grandchildren.
washingtonpost com
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