Aramco Expats

Aramco Experience Forged Enduring Friendships

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Author: Frank Fugate
Released 16 June 2008

At my retirement dinner in December 1986, I told the audience that my wife Mary and I were leaving but our hearts will remain in Saudi Arabia. How true that is even to this day. Our hearts are still there. How could anyone who lived among our Arab friends and the Arab people not feel sadness about leaving?  We were fortunate to have so many Saudi friends and work with so many fine Saudi employees for the over 33 years we lived in Arabia. Those friendships are strong even after 21 years of retirement.

Frank Fugate in 1969.
Photo by B.H. Moody

As far as my working for the Company, it was time for me to fade into the sunset. I had preached to my fellow-American workmen we were there to train Saudis. I had two Saudis that were ready to take my place. I told my boss, Ali Naimi, it was time for me to leave. It was time to practice what I preached. But leaving behind so many Saudi friends, most of whom we would probably never see again, was something to be really sad about.

In my retirement article in The Arabian Sun, I said that I had learned more about life from the Saudis than they learned from me about engineering. That was so true. No one can really understand the people of any country unless they visit their villages, visit their homes, accept their hospitality, drink coffee, and break bread with them. I was fortunate to do that on many occasions.

After 9/11, in response to anti-Arab sentiments peppering the media, I wrote a short article, "The Arabs I Know", which, much to my surprise, traveled widely on the Internet, with stops on political Websites, Counterpunch.org, other news Websites, and some local newspapers.  In it, I tried to express through my personal experiences with Saudis and other Arabs, some of the traits I had observed and come to admire, traits which endeared them to me and belied the negative media-speak that is still with us today.  I received over one thousand emails thanking me for the article.

I can, on this occasion, touch on a few more such examples. I do not want to focus on the continued success of Saudi Aramco now managed solely by Saudis. That is a fact known internationally and needs no comment from me.  What I wish to talk about is the nature of the Saudi people. A misunderstood, often-maligned people whose basic nature shows great respect for family, pride in their heritage, desire to achieve, love of country, desire for peace and to be accepted in the world society. Of course there are radical Saudis just as there are radical Americans. The Saudis I want to talk about are the millions of first-class Saudis whose inherent nature is the reason Saudi Aramco is so successful.

Salah, the son of the late Ahmed Al-Zahir whom I talked about in "The Arabs I Know," and I exchange emails frequently. Ahmed was a true friend. He was an uneducated carpenter and painter foreman in Refinery Maintenance. What an honor that Salah addresses me as “Uncle Frank”! He sends me photos of his children and Ahmed’s other descendents. Their family is typical of the transformation that has happened in Arabia. Ahmed’s descendants are successful Saudi Aramco employees, doctors and educators. We are one family of Saudis and Americans.

Shortly after I retired, Khalid Al-Falih’s father, Abdul Aziz Al-Falih, sent me a note saying, “Sorry I couldn’t be at the airport to see you off. I read the article in The Arabian Sun and I didn’t have to read it to admire you as the short, direct relationship we had gave me the same feeling I got from the article. It simply confirmed it.” The point I want to stress is not what the note says, but the fact that Aziz took the time to send it. He sent it because he exemplifies the basic inner goodness and friendship of The Arabs I Know. Not the few radical ones that much of the media would have Americans believe represent how all Arabs behave.

Hamad Daghreer, the son of another great friend of mine, Yahya Quaimsh Al-Daghreer, works for Saudi Aramco. Hamad and I exchange emails. Hamad sent me Yahya’s photo recently. When I first met Yahya, he was Supervisor of the Sheet Metal Shop in Ras Tanura. Yahya and I would sit and talk about family, life in America and Najran. My fellow Saudi workmen in Maintenance would ask me “wain bilad?” (Where are you from?).  I would answer “ana Najrani”  (I am from Najran). We have memorabilia on display in our home that Yahya brought me from Najran. Yahya called me over the holidays from Al-Khobar.

Of course, there is my very close friend, Khalid Alturki, who made a special trip to Austin, Texas when he learned I had been in the hospital. Khalid and I used to sit in my office and talk for hours about anything and everything. Khalid gives me more credit than I deserve for helping get Dhahran Ahliyyah School established.

When Saud and Munira Al-Ashgar visited us for three days in 2006 it was the special event of the year for us. To see these old friends really warmed our hearts. I first met Saud when he was a young engineer in Ras Tanura. I was ecstatic when he later agreed to join me in the Project Management organization. Saud’s success in Aramco speaks for itself – and Munira’s.

My boyhood dream was to work overseas which led me to major in engineering and study Spanish in college. After I graduated, I served in the Army during the Korean War. I happened to be billeted with several Arab linguists who told me about Aramco. I applied and was accepted. My destiny had been set.

I cannot speak for other retirees, but it is my humble opinion that our tenure in Saudi Arabia and our Saudi friends enriched Mary’s life and mine more than we can ever adequately describe. Working for Aramco and building facilities for this special Company was a great experience, one that any engineer might dream about, but I learned it was secondary to my relations with Saudi employees and the Saudi people in general. I wish I had the space to relate more experiences that forged enduring relationships between Saudis and Mary and me.

There is a saying, “Fire warms the body; friendship warms the heart.” Mary’s heart and mine were surely warmed by our years in Saudi Arabia.

Frank Fugate is a retired senior vice president and former Aramco Board Member. He wrote this article for the 75th Year Commemoration of Saudi Aramco. It was originally published in Vol. LXIII, No. 23 of The Arabian Sun on June 4, 2008.