TOUFIC SELIM CHAMOUN

A tribute to the late Toufic Chamoun,
by his family.

Toufic Chamoun

A Lebanese industrialist, inventor and philanthropist with a career in mechanical engineering. In the 1920s, Toufic Chamoun embarked on a journey to the United States of America, where the automotive industry was in its early years. Curious, passionate and visionary by nature, he experienced first-hand the rise of the automobile during his time with the Ford Motor Company. This collaboration proved fortuitous, for it fuelled a lifelong passion for the automobile.

Toufic Chamoun embraced this new era wholeheartedly, as he pursued interests in engineering and in artistic fields. He was an autodidact in architecture and design with a lifelong pursuit of photography and videography as the avant-garde forms of media of the time.

He was kidnapped in 1978 during the Lebanese civil war and died in captivity two years later. His death was marked by a state funeral.

His Family

He married Marie Younis Azar in 1934, who was born in Hasroun but  grew up in Costa Rica, and thus was Spanish educated.

They had 9 children; Michel (deceased), Robert (deceased), Leila Bito Zibara, William (deceased), Marie-Rose, Ibrahim Najjar, Rodolphe, Camelia Laurent Andraos, Charlotte and Tony (deceased).

There are 15 grandchildren today living between Lebanon, France, UK, Canada and the USA.