Long Time Friends and Old Photographs
- Community
- Annuitants & Former ExPats
Author: Patricia Abahusayn
Released 12 July 2005
Ester and Matt Bunyan
Photograph Contributed by Patricia and Mansur Abahsayn on Behalf of Matthew and Ester Bunyan
Ester Bunyan recently passed away in May at the age of 97. Prior to her passing, Ester mailed Patricia Abahusayn an old photo album containing photos taken by her husband Matthew Bunyan in the mid 1940s while working at Aramco. Patricia and Mansur Abahusayn on behalf of Matthew and Ester Bunyan have generously donated the photographs to Aramco ExPats for your viewing pleasure.
Historical Look at Saudi Arabia - 1940's (Part 1)
Historical Look at Saudi Arabia - 1940's (Part 2)
Historical Look at Saudi Arabia - 1940's (Part 3)
Matthew and Ester Bunyan retired in 1966. The following is their retirement announcement as it was published in the Aramco Sun and Flare newspaper:
Matthew C. Bunyan had chalked up twenty-nine and a half years with Aramco and Socal when he and Ester left Dhahran. Matt is a native of New York State but received his higher education in California – Santa Rosa Junior College and then a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He’s made a life long career in inspection, starting with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge construction project. He joined Socal’s Richmond Materials Laboratory in 1936, but was back in inspection work very shortly, transferring to Aramco in 1944. During his early years in Ras Tanura he was refinery inspector, district engineer and construction coordinator. Three years after his transfer to Dhahran in 1952 as supervisor, Inspection Coordination he was made coordinator Inspection and Materials, and subsequently chief inspection engineer in 1960.
Matt Bunyan arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1944 and his wife and two children joined him in 1946. Ester Bunyan and her children Marilyn and Norton sailed on a Dutch freighter from San Pedro, California arriving in Ras Tanura 49 days later. The freighter was the first foreign ship to carry Americans across the Pacific after World War II. On board were wives and children going to Arabia and a number of missionaries returning to India.
Othman Abahsain, Patricia and Mansur Abahusayn and Ester and Matt Bunyan Taken in 1968
Photograph Contributed by Patricia and Mansur Abahsayn
During their years at Aramco, Matt and Ester met Mansur Abahusayn's older brother, Othman Abahsain, who was later promoted to senior staff in Ras Tanura. Upon retirement and relocating to Tucson, Arizona, it was a special treat for the Bunyan's to be the host family to Mansur from 1967-1969 while he was getting his Masters Degree at the University of Arizona. Mansur went on to get his PhD at the University of California at Riverside, and then became Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Saudi Arabia. Patricia Abahusayn lived in Riyadh from 1972 to 1990; now she and her husband divide their time between California and Saudi Arabia. One of their sons, Mishal Abahusayn, currently works at Aramco as a chemical engineer and Patricia is a frequent visitor to Aramco.
Matthew Bunyan passed away in 1976.
Read Ester Bunyan Passes Away.
Photographs from the 1940's in Saudi Arabia
Photograph Contributed by Patricia and Mansur Abahsayn on Behalf of Matthew and Ester Bunyan