Author Archives: Rashid_Admin

Virtually Yours, Edward Rashid LaHood

Chicago Magazine (July, 1992) described him as a “future shocker, one of ten Chicagoans changing the way we work and think.” Classmates at Notre Dame described him as a “total party monster.” When asked to describe himself, this young computer expert said “I’m a hard-working, hard playing guy. I got the work ethic from my parents. The play thing just came naturally.”

My purpose in interviewing Edward Rashid LaHood, son of good friends Ed and Emily LaHood of Peoria, was to find out how the boy we watched grow up turned into a computer expert that the whole world has its eye on.

At the age of 2, Edward’s favorite toy was not a Tonka truck but a Gilbert Erector set. By the age of 9 he had read everything he could get his hands on about computers. Finally, when he was in the 8th grade, Edward went shopping with his dad and got one of the early Apples. He immediately began to teach himself to program it and remembers the excitement of recreating the Starship Enterprise in color.

At Notre Dame, the school of his dreams, Edward majored in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. During the summers he created and sold software under the Brown Bag label. It was about this time that he saw a mini-revolution taking place in the industry. “Spreadsheet” and “desktop publishing” were becoming household words. Edward felt he wanted to come up with the next big thing. A couple of articles on virtual reality led him to believe that this area was about to explode. Virtual reality allows a user to create 3-D interactive environments. These can be used instead of expensive simulators to move around inside a virtual space such as a theater set, space module, or the human heart. Edward felt that his niche would be in bringing virtual reality to the mass market.

In 1990-’91 Edward created Vream, Inc. and worked around the clock out of his apartment in Chicago. His big break came when he exhibited his virtual reality software at the Meckler Show in ‘91 and found tremendous interest in his product. He began selling in ‘92, still out of his apartment. In ‘93 he rented office space and hired a documentation writer and marketing/sales person. The Web added a whole new dimension in ‘95. People could now download a virtual reality environment from the Internet. Here was the channel to the mass market that he had been looking for.

Edward recently sold his company to Platinum Technologies. The infusion of dollars will allow him to create a new product and show the industry what he, along with Platinum, can really do.

Rounding out Edward’s dream is his recent marriage to Carrie. When I asked how she felt about the hours he put into his work, he said “We started dating in 1991, so she pretty much knows all about me.” We wish this beautiful couple all of God’s blessings and good luck in their life ahead as Mr. and Mrs. Edward LaHood.

 

Starring: Rashid Sales Co.

Picture this: Its the late 1930’s. We’re in Detroit, and as we enter the theater of the Museum of Art, we find Philip Rashid, then around 12 or 13, his younger sister Yvonne, and cousins Muncie, Gladys, DeEtte, Virginia, Inez, Vivian, Genevieve, and Georgia taking tickets and ushering people to their seats. The room fills quickly with three hundred or so newcomers to America from the Middle East. The excitement is palpable. The event? Not a visit from the Patriarch nor a poetry reading by Khalil Gibran. It’s Albert Rashid, newly graduated from the University of Detroit, with a brand new film from the “old country”: White Rose, a musical melodrama produced in Egypt by the famous singer/composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab.

Based on its success in Detroit, and his own instinct that the songs from this film would be a hit, Albert contracted to purchase all of the recordings of White Rose. He then took the film on the road, showing it in cities in the U.S. and Canada that had a sizable concentration of Syrians and Lebanese. More films followed, and more contracts with record companies. Catalogs of recordings were printed, and, to satisfy the demand, Albert started a mail-order business. After W.W. II, he opened the first retail store on East 28th Street in New York City; and later he opened a second store on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Fast forward to the 1990’s. Albert’s sons, Stanley and Raymond, now operate Rashid Sales Co., the country’s premier Arabic music wholesaler, with over 200 distributors in this country. They recognize a growing interest in not only the classic Arabic music, provided by singers like Om Kalsoum and Fairuz, but the trendy “jeel”, an Egyptian hip-hop-like street music and “rai” from Algeria.

Rashid Sales Co. has recently moved to a new location on Court Street , in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood. The new store reflects the brothers’ look to the millennium and this country’s changing population. The December 19, 1998 issue of Billboard magazine featured the brothers and described the new store and the growing business. Among featured items in the store are 1200 CDs, including Om Kalsoum’s 72-CD concert output and a 32-CD boxed set recording of the Islamic holy book, the Koran. There is also an assortment of Arabic percussion instruments for sale, and a large collection of Arabic books and videos.

Raymond is the outside wholesale marketer, working with such colossi as Virgin and Tower Records. John Coughlan, world music buyer at Tower’s Manhattan outlet says of Ray, “He’s really pivotal in providing a bridge to people who aren’t involved in Arab culture.” One popular “bridge” component is “Mozart Le Egyptian,” a Western/Arabic classical fusion album.

Stanley speaks of the increasing numbers of non-Arabic customers coming into the store and to its web site (www.Rashid.com). He cites as a major breakthrough the fact that many manufacturers are supplying English translations of the lyrics. “This just makes it easier for the music to work its way into people’s hearts,” he says. Another new market for the business is film – filmmakers are seeking out Arabic music for their productions. Rashid Sales Co. recently supplied Dreamworks with music for “The Prince of Egypt.”

Between them, the two brothers have three sons. Stanley and Mai’s son Matthew is 25, and has just finished his MBA in Theater from the Actor’s Studio in New York City. In addition to actively auditioning, he is Art Director at Rashid Sales Co., handling print and cyber advertising. Raymond and Mary Ellen’s sons are still young. Raymond, 13, will be entering Xavarian High School, and Michael, 10, is in elementary school. Though they are still making decisions about their future, can there be an empire in the making? Perhaps. But in and of itself, it is exciting to see a business handed down from father to sons, who then help it grow in new directions. Allah Maacum.

 

Rashid Family News – Spring 2005

Volume 7, Issue 1 Acting Editors: Megan A. Gall Denver, CO Special thanks to Catherine Rashid, Alfred J. Rashid, Jim Hendricks & Steven Rashid for helping me get my first newsletter rolling.Chairman’s Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

We will be gathering soon in Washington, D.C. for our 77th Rashid Family Reunion. I look forward to seeing you there. If you haven’t attended a reunion recently, we hope you will this year.

Although the purpose of the reunions has remained the same, i.e., to renew old and dear acquaintances, dance, eat great Lebanese food, talk all night and see the sights, much has changed! Beginning with the Detroit Reunion (75th), followed by last year’s reunion, Charleston (76th), this year’s gathering in Washington, D.C. (77th), New Orleans in 2006 (78th) and, then, Peoria in 2007 (79th), all have or will have been hosted by what we “more experienced” members refer to as the “next generation”. The question we once posed: “Will the next generation step forward?” has been answered. They have, “big time”, and we could not be prouder of them. It bodes well for the future of the Rashid Club.

During recent years, the changes have extended even further. Thanks to the fund raising success of the Peoria Rashids and at their suggestion, children, ages twelve and under, now attend the reunions free of charge. Additionally, a full-length video has been produced that chronicles our family’s history in the United States and includes nearly one thousand photos (see insert for orders). Annually, each of our high school graduates receives an honorarium, as well as a copy of the family video.

Other areas, however, still require attention. Our mentoring program needs volunteers and our website (www.rashidclub.com) input and updating, especially to maximize its capacity as a tool for mentoring. If you would be willing to help, please contact me at home: 952-473-0412, office: 612-347-8601, or by e-mail: al@swensonanderson.com.

Last year, my proposal to bring a student (age 14 to16) from Marjayoun, Lebanon, to the United States for two months this summer (2005) was approved at the Club’s business meeting. As of this writing, two families, Dr. Paul and Kim Fortin (MI) and John and Teal Bardi (PA), have generously offered to host our guest student who will arrive in Detroit, from Beirut, on June 13th, attend the reunion in our nation’s capital and, then, will leave for a month in Philadelphia. The selected student, Sara al Hajj, is fourteen years old and speaks English, French and Arabic, as do most of the students in her school. She is related to Uncle Fred Rashid from Detroit (Inez’s father) and is very, very excited about coming to America and meeting her cousins.

The process has been long but very rewarding and the channels have been opened through Sara’s high school and the U.S. Embassy. It is my fervent hope that the Club

will consider sponsoring a student each year. This means that those of you who have children in Sara’s age group will need to step forward and volunteer as host families and you who have a few extra dollars may need to help offset some of the costs. This is a worthwhile endeavor that impacts bright, talented students from Lebanon and introduces them to bright, talented young people and adults whose families came to our country and have reaped the benefits of a free and open society.

In closing, after four years as Chairman and eight years as Vice-Chair and Treasurer, my term will come to an end this July. It has been both an honor and a privilege to serve. To those with a vision for the Club’s future and a willingness to share your time, I’d ask that you give strong consideration to serving in some capacity as a board member or on a committee. I look forward to seeing all of you in D.C.!

Best Regards, Alfred J. Rashid II

 

Phillip N. Rashid

Phillip N. Rashid

Phillip N. Rashid, 86, of Southfield, MI, passed away on Sunday, January 3, 2004. His wife is Inez M. Rashid, and his son is Fred Rashid. He is survived by his sisters Maureen and Emma, and brother William.

Mark Rashid on the Move

Mark Rashid on the Move – Really on the Move
On July 23, 1996 Mark Rashid of Bethesda, Maryland went for the ride of a lifetime with the Navy’s world-renowned Blue Angels Precision Flying Team. As part of a training assignment, Mark took a “hop” with one of the solo pilots in a Navy Hornet Strike Fighter. The purpose was to familiarize Navy aerospace engineers with the tactical experience of jet crews.

The flight was from Sherman Field in Pensacola Beach, Florida and was piloted by Blue Angel 7, Navy Lt. Scott “Yogi” Bear. The flight lasted about 45 minutes and was conducted from 100 feet to 20,000 feet. It commenced with a high speed run over the runway followed immediately by a hard pull up and subsequent vertical climb to 12,000 feet. It ended with a “touch and go” at typical carrier landing sink rates. Mark was even able to complete a few aerobatic maneuvers of his own when allowed to pilot the aircraft briefly.

During the flight, Mark experienced speeds from 115 mph to 820 mph, or 1.1 times the speed of sound. He experienced accelerations from -1 g (hanging upside down) to 7.2 g’s (indescribable). At 7.2 g’s Mark weighed 1,300 pounds. Somewhere during the rolls, spins, and flips, Mark lost consciousness for a couple of seconds due to the sudden acceleration (from level flight to 7 g’s in less than one second, and from 100 feet altitude to 18,000 feet in 30 seconds). At takeoff, the aircraft weighed 14 tons. During the flight, the two engines burned 2 1/2 tons of jet fuel, principally kerosene. That’s enough gas for the average car for up to 1 year and 3 months of average use.

There is a footnote to this great adventure. A hotbed of malcontents formed a hate group named “people who hate Mark” as a direct result of the flight. Known associates include Chris Gall, Steve Rashid, and Paul and Joanne Rashid. Just how far this group may go to further its causes is unclear. Do what you can to help shelter Mark from these malcontents at the next reunion.

 

Keynote Address at the 74th Annual Rashid Family Reunion

Keynote Address at the 74th Annual Rashid Family Reunion
Chicago, Illinois July 5-7, 2002

The Americanization of the Rashid Family by Jeannette Rashid

Can you believe that this is the seventy-fourth annual reunion of the Rashid Family? Next year we’ll be observing our diamond jubilee – the seventy-fifth year of a family gathering that celebrates love, kinship, and friendship. It’s wonderful to see the family grow in numbers and to see even the very young ones eager to attend the reunions.

I must tell you at the outset that this will be a purely anecdotal rather than well researched and documented history of the family. The late “bud” Rashid of Washington, D.C. gave us that in a beautiful presentation at the Houston Reunion several years ago.

Everything that you hear from me will be what my parents or other relatives have told me, or things I have observed through the years.

People ask how a family continues to gather annually for so many years. In my mind it is because the whole concept of having reunions was built on a strong foundation of courage, love, and dreams.

We begin in the late 19th century when the Lebanese immigrants, including some of the Rashids, began to come to this country. There seemed to be a greater influx of the Rashids in the early 20th century – the early nineteen hundreds.

These Rashids left the security of their homes at a tender age, some as young as 14 or 15. They came here almost penniless, not knowing the language and unfamiliar with this new culture.

You might ask, “How could their parents let them leave home this way? They were just kids.” Actually, it was an act of love to let them go. They wanted them to have the opportunities to live and prosper in this free country. They loved Lebanon, but making a living there was increasingly difficult for many reasons, including political.

Like most of the generation, my father Shaffeek (Shaffee) Rashid came here at age 15 and my mother, Zakia, was twelve when she came.

Actually, whether your Lebanese surname was Farha, Lahood, Saigh, Naseef, Francis, Ganim, or any other Lebanese name, you have similar stories in your background.

Coming here took courage – a courage manifested over and over by our family members through the years. It was this courage that made it possible for us to live in this great country and to enjoy its blessings.

It took courage and determination for them to learn the language, to get work, and to become American Citizens, but their dreams of the opportunities open to them in this new land kept their hopes high.

How were they to make a living? The Lebanese people are descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, who were the world’s first traders. They sailed the oceans and took their wares into the countries that existed at that time. Our people had an innate talent for selling. (Maybe they were inspired by that old saying, “He could sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.)

Most of the men and even some of the women began door-to-door selling. As soon as they were able to save a little money, they would send it to their families in Lebanon. Love of family was part of their moral fiber. Soon they were sending for other family members to join them in America.

They expanded into owning their own businesses, even if it were only a horse and wagon to take them through the countryside with their wares. They graduated into actual store buildings. Before long there was quite a generous sprinkling of Rashid grocery stores and meat markets throughout the country, with some clothing stores and import businesses in addition. (A local newspaperman vacationed in the upper peninsula of Michigan a few years ago and came bursting into our grocery store and told of his amazement at finding a Rashid Grocery Store in the wilds of Michigan.)

Today, may of our family members are very successful business people whether they own their own businesses or are part of a large corporation.

The new immigrants settled together in communities because they needed to be with each other for support and the familiarity of living with people of their own background.

Their assimilation into the American culture didn’t happen overnight. Remember that they weren’t going to classes like we do when we want to learn a foreign language. They had to learn English by living and working here, which is really the best way, anyhow.

A you might guess, there were some different pronunciations of common words. For example the consonants “P” and “B” were interchanged. Peanut butter became “Benis Buttah.” There were others! In their homes, they had kitchen “zinks. It was years before I realized the kitchen “zink” was the kitchen sink.

Verb tenses also were confused at times. One of our family’s fondest recollections is of Dad calling out to Mom, “Did you wound the clock?” The answer would come, “Yes, I wind it.” This was a bedtime ritual because the alarm clock was the kind you had to wind to make it run.

There were times when a word went through some kind of metamorphosis so that it came out with an English head and a Lebanese tail. For example, the floral of car was “car ott” – the ott was like our “s” in this case. Someone might say, “Yee! Il car ott be Detroit!” Translated that would be “Wow, the cars in Detroit!”

When we chuckle about their speech and pronunciation, it is not to ridicule them but rather to enjoy and love them. They were delightful!

From such beginnings, this immigrant generation became really quite adept in speaking the language. They learned to read and write English. They became naturalized citizens. In addition, they genuinely loved this country and appreciated their right to vote and have a voice in the government. We were repeatedly admonished never to forget to vote.

During these early years, after marrying and starting their own homes and families, they sometimes moved away from their original home sites but usually to a nearby town. They experienced the joys as well as the heartaches and sadness that life brings us. They lost children o illness. Parents died, many of them leaving young children. A few of them tried homesteading in the Dakotas, but after a year or two they came back. The bitter cold and the heavy snows were foreign to the Lebanese, for they had come from a land with a California climate.

Even after marrying settling into their own homes, and starting families, the relatives kept in close contact with one another. The pace of life was much slower. Quite often there would be a gathering of friends and relatives at someone’s home – much more so than now.

When they gathered together, they were happy and jovial. Their discussions often became quite loud with everyone wanting to have his say. They laughed a lot and teased each other a lot. Then, at some point sometime during the evening, if Uncle Jake Rashid of Fort Madison, Iowa was in the group, there would be a request for him to sing a “Bate Aataba” as it was called. The “Bate Aataba” was a haunting, mournful melody with lyric about their homeland and the loved ones still there. The words were composed by the singer and they came from the heart. As you looked around, you would see the listeners, both men and women, taking a furtive swipe at a tear.

Our people were also great believers in education. Obviously they great basic intelligence to accomplish everything that they did in a foreign land. They wanted their children to get the education that they had not received. They saw to it that their children graduated from high school. That was a must! You see, at that time lots of students dropped out of high school to go to work in the fields or the factories. High school graduation didn’t quite satisfy everyone. The dreams were at work again. A large number of that first generation to be born here decided to go to college. Those who did not had good reason and began their own climb to success in their own ways. Much of it was in the world of business. They worked hard and used their intellectual powers and imagination to pursue their dreams. They were successful! Today they are prosperous, retired businessmen and women.

From these beginnings, we now have represented in our family just about every profession you can name. We are very proud of that. As you know the Rashid Club is organizing a mentoring program to give encouragement and assistance to young people entering a professional field. Now children and parents alike automatically figure on college after high school.

May I give you just one illustration of how deeply this concept is becoming a part of the think of our children? One of my great-nephews, Luke LaDeur, son of Jeff and Debbie Rashid LaDeur, coming home from his first grade class last spring found a dime and a penny on the sidewalk. This was big! He was very excited and ran into the house to show his mother and his pre-school brother, Andrew. Having learned that he should share with his brother whenever he could, he looked at the two coins and then extended the penny to Andrew and said, “Here, Andrew, put this in your college fund.” So much for education.

As the family grew the children were starting their own families and were moving to different parts of the country to pursue their professions. It occurred to the elders that as families scattered all over the country, the second-generation children would grow up not knowing their cousins.

In 1928 a large group of them got together in one of the country’s smallest villages – LaFayette, Illinois. In our home in LaFayette, the Rashid Club was organized with one of its main purposes being to see to it that cousins would continue to know each other and the family values would continue to be up held. The result: An organization that continues to promote the love and the dreams that motivated the immigration of our fathers, mothers, aunts, and uncles to America.

The first president of the Rashid Club was the late Doctor Carl Rashid of Greenbay, Wisconsin. He was a cousin of the late Alfred and Lester Rashid of Davenport, Iowa. The first secretary was the late Josephine Rashid, daughter of the late Namaan and Amelia Rashid, then of Kewanee and later of Peoria. The first treasurer was the late Fred Rashid of Detroit, father of Inez (Mrs. Philip) Rashid of Detroit.

The first reunions were actually picnics, with host families cooking and serving the food, organizing games, awarding prizes, etc. As the family grew, that format was impossible to carry out and we began our convention-type meetings.

Ten years after the club was organized, there came the rumblings of war in Europe. Hitler was making his moves. Then came the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in December of 1941 and America was drawn into World War II.

Once more we saw a demonstration of courage and sacrifice. Forty-seven of our family served in this war and (as Tom Brokaw described it in his book of the same name) they became part of “The Greatest Generation.”

Ralph Rashid of Peoria was the first of the family to go overseas. Two of the forty-seven made the supreme sacrifice: Oscar Rashid, son of Minnie Rashid Barakat of Detroit, and Edward Rashid, son of Ray Rayhal Rashid of Davenport, Iowa were killed in action.

Since then, we have fought in Vietnam and Korea and in other military actions in which members of our family were involved. We have not been apprised of the numbers.

Here we are this evening, enjoying the fruits of the planning and foresight of those Rashids who came before us. We are grateful to them and to all of you who have been and/or are now involved in keeping this organization vibrant and healthy.

I would like to leave you with this wish: May we all have the courage to dream and to pursue those dreams with the same conviction that our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents demonstrated.

 

For The Love of It – Crafting Violins

Joe Rashid has been crafting violins for seven decades – just for the love of it

Heart Strings – By Bob Sylva reporting for The Sacramento Bee
Reprinted with permission – Under copyright protection

Joe Rashid made his first violin in 1933. Not a bad year, if you overlook the Depression. That was violin No. 1. He built his most recent fiddle, violin No. 95, in late 2004, in time to play for his 95th birthday.

A violin for every year of his life, like so many rings of a heritage tree. He holds and turns No. 95 in his hands. He admires its shape, its grace, its inner workings.

“This is my favorite,” says Rashid, tucking the instrument under his chin, closing his eyes in a dreamy embrace. Such a Solomonic dilemma. How can a father favor one child?

“I’d rather play this one over any of the others,” he says. “The workmanship is not the same (as with its earlier siblings), but the tone doesn’t suffer. It turned out well.”

Rashid, at 95, still owns all his abilities.

He also possesses all his violins, 1 to 95.

Here they are, tout ensemble, in his music room, most dangling by their scrolled necks in a cabinet, back to front, in precise alignment, in perfect tune, all glowing like glazed ducks in a market window.

It’s an amazing collection. Each violin – golden, nubile, mellowing – has a small dot of tape on its body with its number written in ink. They’re arranged in chronological order.

“The second was fair,” says Rashid of No. 2. “The third was good. But the fourth was the best!” He shakes his head, marveling. “And it’s still the best. Everyone wants to buy No. 4.”

But No. 4 is not for sale.

In fact, none of his violins is for sale. Rashid would sooner sell one of his own children – he has three, all enchanted, if a bit mystified by their redoubtable father – than part with one of his precious violins. Throughout his long life, the instruments alone have been his true companions, ever faithful, always responsive.

The instruments are good, if not excellent, which is remarkable because Rashid, the musical equivalent of an outsider artist, is completely self-taught. He is an aeronautical engineer by profession, not a luthier. But finicky concertmasters praise the instruments.

“They sing,” says LeRoy Peterson, a professor of violin at Pacific Union College in Angwin. “His are very natural-sounding. It’s not just how the violin sounds, but how it feels. They’re even, well-balanced. They are not unlike a person, someone who is well-rounded in every aspect of life.”

He is speaking of the instruments.

But how to explain their maker, who is mulish, passionate, dedicated to his task, a nonagenerian in adolescent pursuit of a magnificent obsession.

The perfect violin.

Maybe No. 96.

It’s mid-afternoon on a recent Sunday. He is sitting at his dining-room table in his home in Nevada City. He lives alone. Just Rashid and 95 violins, four violas and the chatter of his tools.

Rashid is a trim 135 pounds. His frame is a bit stooped, but not his purpose. He is wearing tan slacks, a striped wool shirt. He has a cleaver nose, a self-deprecating wit, a granite will. He sits in a patch of warm sunlight. His wispy hair is like a frayed halo. His hands – the skin parchment, the backs sorely bruised – are clasped idly in his lap.

Despite his age and bachelor status (he is long divorced), Rashid’s house is neat. The floor is swept, the dishes racked on the counter.

After two cataract surgeries, his blue eyes are twinkling again. He continues to drive. Outside, one notices a ladder set up. Rashid was on his roof this winter inspecting his chimney. He cooks all his own meals.

Facing one corner, there’s a music stand, with “L’Abeille,” a piece by Franz Schubert for violin.

Asked about making violins, he cries, “I love it! All my life, I’ve loved it. But now especially. The first thing I do every morning is go into my shop. I check to see what I was doing the day before. And, before you know it, it’s time for lunch.”

Rashid was born in Little Current, northern Ontario. His father, a watchmaker, was an immigrant from Damascus, his mother from Beirut.

“My father used to make flutes from bamboo,” he says. “I think I inherited my love of music from him.”

At 16, living in Windsor, on the Canadian border across from Detroit, Rashid had his first violin lesson; it cost 85 cents. Then, as now, he was an avid but workmanlike player. Later, he took up boxing and went to a trade school to learn tool-making.

He saved his money and enrolled at the University of Detroit. In 1932, he earned a degree in aeronautical engineering. In 1933, watching a cabinetmaker construct a violin from scratch, he made one himself. During the war, he worked at the Ford Motor plant making engines for tanks destined for North Africa.

He married a viola player and the couple moved in 1949 to Long Beach, where Rashid got a job with Northrop. Until his retirement, he gladly designed tools, plane parts, jet-age mechanisms. And violins.

In 1981, restless, retired, divorced (a custody dispute over a viola remains a sore point), he moved to this house in Nevada City. By day, he works on his violins, finishing one every few years. At night, he plays them, working his way through his ensemble.

According to the Violin Society of America, there are approximately 350 violin makers in the United States. A professional-quality violin starts at around $10,000 and goes stratospheric from there.

There are several medal-winning violin-makers living in Northern California, notably Tom Croen in Pleasanton, Joe Grubaugh in Petaluma and John Harrison in Redding.

“He’s somewhat eccentric,” says Harrison of Rashid. “I don’t know that much about him. But he came up to visit the shop once. I’ve never seen any of his violins, so I can’t comment on their quality. But he sure had some interesting stories to tell.”

William Barbini is a well-known violinist and former concertmaster of the Sacramento Symphony. He lives in Davis and continues to perform for orchestras in the Bay Area. He knows Rashid quite well and has made numerous trips to Nevada City to chat with him and sample his banquet of instruments.

“I wouldn’t call him an amateur violin maker,” Barbini says. “No, definitely not. In fact, they’re about as good as you get with contemporary fiddles. They have a nice, almost transparent varnish. They’re beautifully carved, and they sound beautiful. They’re not all consistently great, but some of them are phenomenal.”

Barbini says he used to borrow one of Rashid’s violas to play in the Sacramento Symphony. As if savoring a bottle of fine Bordeaux, he recalls the viola’s sumptuous sound as being “mind-boggling.”

In further considering the curious, solitary figure of Rashid, Barbini says: “Some musicians are not motivated to perform in front of people. They only play for themselves. I think he is trying to improve the art form (of violin making), not to make money.”

Carol Draper is Rashid’s daughter (he also has two sons). A nurse, she lives in Reno and maintains a close watch over her father’s security and welfare.

“Growing up, there was always the smell of varnish and wood,” she says. “My father was always in his shop working on his fiddles.”

Like so many others, Draper is moved by her father’s sustaining love affair with the violin.

“He’s very much a perfectionist,” she says. “He wants to do things in the absolute right way. He wants the right varnish. He wants the exact proportions of the Old Masters. He takes a very objective approach to making violins. Yes, he does like the mechanics, but he also loves the music.”

Ultimately, in accounting for the carved timeline of No. 1 to No. 95, she says, “it’s almost like a diary. He can pick up one of his violins and find out what happened that year, what he was doing. They represent a huge chunk of his life. He put in a lot of love and effort into those instruments. They’re like his family.”

Maybe more prized than his real family?

She laughs. “I’m not going to answer that question.”

Rashid happily leads a tour of his shop, which is located off the garage. Even with sunlight pouring through a window, the place is cool, quiet.

Everything is tidy, precise. He strokes his custom-designed router, pats his ingenious drill press. There is a pegboard of clamps, chisels and an array of hand tools. He displays a palm full of tiny, hand-made planes, which resemble pencil sharpeners.

He opens a wooden chest and reveals a concoction of turpentine, linseed oil, rosin. The secret recipe for violin varnish, from a cookbook in Cremona that goes back centuries.

And, racked on a bottom shelf, there are planks of hard, blond wood. He shows you a slab of spruce, harvested from some forest in Europe, probably in Bosnia. In a neat cursive, in pencil, it reads, “Metropolitan Music, NYC. March 28, 1973.”

Here are the makings of No. 96, 97, 98…

“Yes,” he says, humble, of breathing life into a block of wood. “It makes me feel good. If I can make them right, odds are they are going to sound good.”

Later, one imagines Rashid retreating to the comfort of his music room, his sanctuary, his concert hall. He sits down in a chair. He nods to the waiting players. The violins explode to life, old No. 4 soaring above, through the roof, on an angel’s flight.

 

Introduction of Jeannette Rashid

Introduction of Jeannette Rashid as Keynote Speaker at the 2002 Rashid Reunion
By Philip Rashid of Chicago

The Rashid Club of America’s annual convention-reunion honors the family’s history and accentuates the prospects of future happiness and prosperity.

This 74th annual love fest is a special dedication to the beloved women, cherished aunts and dear sisters whose depth and breadth of contributions to this family are heroic and noble.

These dear hearts, crossbred in their family’s old country culture and the new American way of life, acknowledge the variance and translated that difference and in so doing enriched each member of their household. They nourished the fondness of family, encouraged love of neighbor and stimulated the pursuit of wisdom. They provided comfort and understanding. And in themselves became an inspiration.

To widen and deepen the dimensions of their marvelous contributions is our guest speaker, Jeannette of Lafayette, Illinois.

As you listen to Jeannette you may hear the voice and envision the presence of the dear heart who motivated you, who guided you in the precepts of giving and of a good life.

PLEASE WELCOME DEAR JEANNETTE!

 

A Lifelong Dream in Medicine

“I am one of those lucky people. I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. I have wanted to be a physician as far back as I can remember. I’m not sure where the desire came from. It was something that my family, especially my father, encouraged me to do. He taught me that I could make a difference and helped me to believe in myself.”

This is the opening paragraph of Donna Marie Woods’ resume. She and her husband, Tom Darga, and their two young sons live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Donna is the daughter of Rosebud Rashid Woods and the late Robert Woods of the Chicago area.

After getting her B.S. in Psychology at the University of Michigan (1988), Donna received her M.D. degree at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in 1993. In 1998 she became a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry.

A decade of academic study and clinical practice! On paper, these years seem to be a sequence of easily won accomplishments. But it was far from easy. Donna remarks that her first two semesters of study at Michigan were far from stellar. She had always been at the top of her high school class. But so were many of the other freshmen at the University! Donna was worried about her father’s health, and this made it even more difficult to do well in her classes and to adjust to college life.

After getting through a tough first year, Donna did well and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree. An important decision had to be made now. Donna wondered if she should pursue a Ph.D. instead of an M.D.. After a long discussion with a former professor, Donna realized she might be abandoning her lifelong dream because of a fear of rejection. She decided to work through this fear. Instead of applying to medical school, Donna worked for two years on a Childhood Cancer project. The project team studied the effects of cancer on children’s feelings and thoughts about this disease and, ultimately, on their lives. This psychosocial research project served as a useful transition and affirmed Donna’s desire to become a physician.

Medical school was “four long and grueling years.” Gross Anatomy Lab (that was its name!) was just one notable experience. Donna remarks that each lab began with a priest blessing the cadavers and giving a sermon about the sacrifice these people made to the students’ education. The year ended at this lab with a funeral for the cadavers. There was a great sense of relief among the students that Gross Anatomy Lab was now history.

During the last two years of medical school, Donna went through rotations of study in all of the major medical areas. Although hours were long and on-call duties were seemingly endless, these rotations convinced Donna to pursue psychiatry instead of pediatrics. She completed her four-year residency at Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry. Another hard won step on the path to achieving her life long goal of becoming a physician.

Today Donna is in her second year of a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, participating in a research project on bereavement. The project compares how individuals in different kinds of families deal with a parent’s death. Just a few of Donna’s research and clinical interests include a focus on mentally ill homeless people, children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and the biological basis of children’s behavior disorders.

Donna hopes to stay in academic medicine working at a hospital associated with a major medical school. This would enable her to combine clinical work with teaching and doing research. A very full agenda! But there is so much more than her profession on Donna’s life agenda.

Donna says it’s very hard to find just the right balance between work and family. Her husband, Tom, and her mother and siblings have been a great support system. Being a good parent to two young sons is as exciting to Donna as anything in her repertoire of psychiatric knowledge, experience and skills.

Donna Woods Darga is a Rashid family member who had the motivation, intelligence and determination to pursue her life long ambition to become a physician. With the support of her husband and her family, she has fulfilled her father’s belief that she could achieve her dream.