Thomas Naff, former director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Middle East Center and a scholar of the Ottoman Empire, died on Aug. 2, 2023, at the age of 93. His career at Penn spanned the years 1967 to 2002.
Naff was born in Illinois in 1929 to Lebanese immigrant parents. He grew up in Highland Park, Michigan, and attended public schools. Inspired by his mother and sister to pursue academic success, he eventually earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley, and concomitantly from the University of London, School of Oriental and Asian Studies.
Naff held academic positions at the American University in Cairo, Harvard University, and Penn. He founded the Middle East Research Institute, which delved into many contemporary issues, including water scarcity.
Naff was a beloved husband, father, and grandfather. He was married to Joan Rice from 1952 until her death in 2015. They had three sons, Clayton, Derek, and Bryan. He was also a devoted grandfather to eight grandchildren. Naff was a kind and generous man who enriched the lives of everyone he met. He will be remembered as a scholar, a humanitarian, a friend, and a family man
The Thomas Naff Middle East Collections Endowed Fund at the University of Pennsylvania libraries has been set up by his former graduate students and anyone who wishes to contribute to it in his honor can go to: https://giving.aws.cloud.upenn.edu/fund?program=LIB&fund=406521