Ahmad Shraibati, a 42-year Point Dume resident, died at his home on June 26 following a months-long decline in health.
Ahmad was born in 1930 in Damascus, Syria and came to the United States in 1952 to attend the University of Texas. He transferred to the University of Missouri, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. He met his wife Susan Douglas while in college, and they married in 1958.
After living in Southern California, the Midwest and overseas, the couple moved their family from Burbank to Malibu in 1968. He worked as a civil engineer for the Los Angeles County for 27 years before retiring in 1991.
While Shraibati spent his working life as an engineer, his passion was gardening. He was an avid and gifted gardener who was a farmer at heart. A friend of his once said that Shraibati could make roses grow in the sand. In addition to his flourishing home garden, he owned orange groves in the San Joaquin Valley and a farm in Syria.
Shraibati was a devout Muslim who made the pilgrimage to Mecca with his best friend and practiced his faith quietly with devotion. He felt fortunate about his life in Malibu, and he made a priority of taking care of his seven brothers and sisters, and their families in Syria his entire life. He enjoyed poetry and a good joke. Friends and family said he was a great conversationalist who never met a stranger.
Shraibati is survived by his wife of 52 years, Susan; children: Tarek (Lilly), Malek, Tameem (Kim), Nada (Karey Kirkpatrick) and Hamed, as well as grandchildren: Nadia, Jihan, Olivia, Sami, Maia, Finn, Jaquelyn, and Chloe.
He was buried on June 29 in California’s Central Valley near the orange orchards he enjoyed.