Robert Soussi
Robert Soussi was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to a French father and a mother he believed was of Italian origin. He was one of four children, with two sisters and a younger brother named Claude. His father worked as a stockbroker and bank manager, while his mother devoted herself to raising the family. He recalled his feisty paternal grandmother and his proud maternal grandfather, who walked from the Jewish quarter of Alexandria to visit and bring Middle Eastern pastries but never accepted help. The family built a home in the Cleopatra area of Alexandria, on a street that came to bear the Soussi name.
Educated in Alexandria, Robert and Claude attended a British school after early French schooling, while his sisters received a French education. During the war, England sent teachers to Egypt rather than sending students abroad. Egypt's independence and the 1948 nationalization severely affected the large European population and the family's livelihood, and Robert's father saw no future for his sons there. As French citizens, Robert and his brother moved to France. Claude entered military service and became an Air Force pilot, training in Texas under NATO and serving in Indochina. Robert, valued for his fluency in English and Arabic, was hired into aviation and posted throughout Africa.
Robert traveled extensively during his aviation career, taking postings across Africa and helping train applicants to take over roles from the British. He later moved into aircraft manufacturing with a major French competitor of Boeing. While working for a shipping company, he met his American wife, who had come to France to improve her French, and they married and settled into an apartment they built to their own specifications. The couple had a daughter born in France and a son born in New York State. They moved to the United States, living on Long Island and then in Oklahoma for eight years before settling in Texas. Robert spoke movingly of his devotion to his parents, whom he helped secure housing after they lost everything in Egypt, and of volunteering to visit and care for residents of a retirement home.
Full Transcript
good morning today is July 17 2018 my name is Joe Rheingold and I'm interviewing Robert SUSE hello robert how are you - good tell us a little bit about your family your grandparents and your parents where they lived where they were and how they came over here okay 36:35 born in Alexandria Egypt French parents I said France parents because my father was French also but I think my mother was Italian their four children the two others were two girls like two sisters only there myself I was the next boy and the fourth was a younger son two girls two boys in the Jewish tradition a
lot of responsibility the onus was on me being the oldest boy so this is it my grandparents I vaguely vaguely remember my grandfather hardly my grandmother paternal and she was feisty small in size and very secluded very secluded that the way she was brought up and said I think eight children for man responds I remember and she prefers that once they were growing up and she taking care of them through education etc - I loved her husband so to retire socially speaking on the part of my mother I've never met I never remembered my maternal grandmother because she passed away my maternal grandfather I do
remember him he was also an extremely proud old man and when I say proud he didn't want any help of financial help from anybody when he came to I'm jumping a little bit but when he came to visit our house he had never had a meal incidence when so car horn year-round the whole year round and you would have his meal right there he will come once a week from downtown Alexandria from the Jewish quarters he would take he opens entertain and you would walk probably he would never tell us when he would come sorry he didn't want to be met so he was like
this way to our house as far as my grandparents I remember because you once came to the school a little bit because they didn't expect it as I can leave you wanted to bring me a pastry you know Middle Eastern pastries I forgot some of the names of the other but that was my grandfather my father as far as I think well my mother never worked when she had the fortune never would addition if you wish but her job is to raise but to count us crazy children taken over the husband and they were very very very close and so I believe at the time
they lived I don't remember it very well living in an apartment but he came to the point that my father his position they decided to build a house and they call them at the time those houses but they were independent they were content to become dealers and he settled down in the place of Alexandria in the place called Cleopatra because in this way they said that Clamato was there for a while with another Anthony whoever it is and it was called Cleopatra laid back for the beaches the baths so it took a bath beach but they done and that was about five or seven stops
by tram to the city of Alexandria where the banks are set aside into interspersed to schools and so my father had to develop it but then the problem was how to get the mail it didn't exist so you had to go to the post office but gradually a few more village will be here and there so those are the municipality municipality call them and suggested to him donation to make it easier for the main man and all the main comes like in English or French or Italian Greek Greek must rest however we will name the death tree that you live in after your name ue4
Street but sushi I'm proud to say still there so many years but when Egypt became independent and the British left they asked that resources should be divided into two the top in Arabic and the bottom remains the same real sushi I've got at home and I've got brought the clock back okay that's why so this is where we lived and this is where we my two sisters my brother traveled that's another name to go to school at the time just want to be to my father and mother they decided but they decided that my two sisters would go for the French education so they will
go to these shapes you're familiar with and my brother and my my name at the time nobody could be Robert whatever still my younger brother Claude and myself we started off with kindergarten or one year of French and then moved over to the British he stayed there all through school through high school did you say it was called low high it had 12 classrooms the bottom chicks were the lower starting not kindergarten but you would over the anything could've grade class one first again so then there was the war did I jump too much if I had done the 12 classes to continue in England
provided you had the great granted but the pressure was not on them that much they got very very good range but kaleriya so anyway so England then decided and that was an early in the world that to set the people over from Egypt or from Iran I was also under British auspicious British rules and other places that you Mack who was also the same same on the other side Chile and the Lebanon was under the French but anyway they decided that to send all those young men students also the boys school girls to send them over to England it'll be more economical and better to
send teachers from England over to Egypt so they were the proportion would have been like one for every twenty students or whatever it is it depends on the caliber of the student and what they wanted to do if they were to go into engineering science comments for the concurrent which it means business do it covers too much business so anyway they came over so we had to go to classes again but other teachers that we did not were not familiar with and so this was going on and so I got the maximum they've got even worse than militarily and politically a lot of resentment Germany
advancing Italy first at war and the Germans following so there was a lot of them so come in 1948 there was a nationalization and that was hurting every European 75% there was a population of foreigners of all nationalities and then for the others it was officers had to employ 90% Egyptians 10% Europeans did work too much too well for the banks and so forth so they were told that fire or employ more Egyptians even if they don't do any work and you can keep the quarter by not dismissing some of the Europeans my father incidentally was a stockbroker and to boost those golden boots and
he was also the bank manager of a bank so he was involved in both the bush didn't work too well because no export 90 percent the west of Egypt is cotton I'm sure he might be forget the French cotton in the world is prevented 90 percent was both in advance by the British the bottom straight away to feed their factories in Manchester twins the days their cities and the rest worked for exports and then my father says that absolutely there was no future for tradition for me to take over from my father or to even join there was no teachers for us so again there's
a lot of decisions that were made really unknown to us we were really wonderful kids and that we respected our parents and then every baby's too much but all this is you make it to the parent can I continue yeah very quickly decided my brother and I should I go to French we were French citizens registered at the consulate in Alexandria because I can speak for myself I want to speak to my brother I was very very very telling minded I loved many parents discipline I love Jimmy informed I loved everything everything he was more of the student so he also did his last year's
in them exactly at the mission they had more obvious like to continue when they go we got to French we were given ration cards and we were good we get help to be located so much to live with so my brother he was told you had to do national service so you will directly to the national service so when you went there and they said be careful now we'll accept your grains purchase from the lessee will accept your grains but remember you might be interrupted because you have to do national service twelve months ten months so you've taken it to sympathy and then discipline by
the way if you volunteer professional service instead of being cold so there'll be no interruption then you can come back but advantage because of English but anyway to make it very brief within months it was asked if he would be interested in flying and he never wanted to be a ministry person he was sent to the States but the NATO and he came to Texas there's one company and Austin and we went to the flying schools under NATO underneath they took provided everything and he became his career was in the Air Force and he also served in Indochina very very highly degraded I looked for
a job and a recommendation to go to France because my English but go to the next so clashes then the probes were attractive enough you thought to stay behind and and face the battle the people who decide whether you would fit I attended the banner and I was brought by a friend to say when somebody asked me a question someone else would finish that question first and I'm sorry what did you say what so cold however I overheard someone saying hey it's English that's what we want languages he speaks Arabic - take him to his mother languages forget to school never mind the English school
she never went to a French school you know forget all that between themselves and what they call the name I can't tell you how I felt because my name sushi Dinesh we're all down the line to be cold about 30 of us so my name awaited awaited those with age and bees and seasons healing I went in so I was accepted but I went to too small energy of air friends so I went to see the personnel manager to make my introduction and you said you have any questions I said you've got colonies all over can be important overseas say my dear man you'll be
on this 2000 and something six months later there was the what did so deep aggressive evil in the French Congo I applied here he goes first and they cook me again apparently the man's wife didn't want to go to Africa she had three batches I thought something to thoughtfully meet something serious and he said no no no no we don't want the responsibility to take it you're next so I always take six months in Paris I came back on my ration cards to whoever wanted them and I want to preserve it so my career was in Africa throughout being a bachelor I accepted every posters
people have to go on vacation we do two new tools and three multiplication I stepped in so I need every possible station I traveled extensively my English was tremendous as promotions that kind of thing but after three tools overseas that's it for now yet you have to take a break because they were fighting police mosquitoes but so so I covered my child was also to train future applicants to take over from the British so I spent another many many was it I would like to be able to get away with my pension this time I left the airlines and I went to the construction you
know we were competing with Airbus I mean Airbus was completing with the Boeing Company and again my English okay this is mr. Robert SUSE and we are continuing with his interview go right ahead [Music] overseas and I thought my parents were failing and my sister said I will something to ask her and I'm going to send you a letter when the letter came and she said look what the Barrett our parents are living with me talking about herself and they're living up there gathered or something that has been not to open and not to accuse him in that concept and there is my father mother billing in the single room and telling all the other facilities so it was very very restrained and so my sister was caught
in between so she suggested something she said you know the government is giving him but two people okay peaceful my sister but she was the only one absorbing my balance my other son she said there was a problem with authority she said she was told why do you need a father you know because you expel but the rage she knew them somewhere else officially people live father and mother so that I got the papers ever sinking over money my mother and father my mother particular was so happy in their own place to me and that's it that's one so this one took care of my
parents as fun as I do something for them so anyway when it comes that what at the end of my term you have to my choice they were recognizing everything they wrote the contract a new contract to train applicants to take over from us when it was British friends old benches so much but my money was safe in England so I retired from Africa unfortunately which I love so much occupy so I started looking for a job over there and I went around the travel agents and km this initiative at one time of the open doors for me as a visitor but when he came
that it was for a job officially I was too too smart a big that I was in charge of countries back in Africa spaces country decision making I was being restricted and I was very very discouraged fine a cousin of mine worked for a shipping company us shipping company and he hinted that there were a couple of vacancies and although he one airline and this is shipping it still travel come and give it a shot so I said alright so to make it brief is when I met my wife and she was working there coming from the states that she can explain later why she
came over to learn French improving up French and that kind of saying and she had a job there so I got to meet her and eventually also dated with her they did together and I told you to her to my parents and whenever the system was around so my family absorbed talked early no problem it was a bit different with her parents being in the States and her daughter being alone over there in France she lived with a distant cousin somewhere father was of French origin and so they got a bit suspicious initially also that she's meeting someone older them than she was and I
wanted to take advantage of it to come to the states by you know and they said so she was not really fed to welcome but she's truthful and she said no I'd rather I know what I'm doing that company but so it came that they accepted father and so we got married I took over there the apartment so I bought another one a brand new one built our own specification which really lacked also so everything worked fine and the day of our wedding will telegram for my parents welcoming me and wishing us all the best so I said to him we settled in the apartment
and a month digress a little bit it's because so anyway we were doing good we were doing very good so I think we need in that shipping company us whatever it is and but by my field was get back to the airlines or the aircraft down the street from practically where we live there was like a big outlet that built planes so I applied there so it was altogether different from when I used to be in the airline as to going into the construction but the game but my English proficiency had a lot so I went and worked over there and very very very good
the NATO countries we lived in an apartment that we love very much in the houses not apartments in there so anyway I started thinking about going to to the state with the company and I got a lot of help from my company which incidentally is as big as Boeing here in the States and very big competitors report very big I mean so you know English French Canadian and you see we welcome and settlement us over the telephone and telexes and so it makes it existed so my supervisor said get away you can go to Canada so that's all I went to the personnel department I
said I'm going to count as you said yes we know we get the ticket for you and I said where can I make a stopover to America I mean we have to make a connection and they said yes I said well I'd like to meet my in-laws I've never met them yet I mean that or you about two years or three boo something very small span of time but it was always either telephone or dentists and accounting but that stay you know vacation time if you want then continue to come so to make it short I got to the States I will met at the
airport by sister's family wonderful great big thing that night got all the rest of the family aunts and uncles on this and I was adopted by different I was taken in at once great was traveling back home wondering they're playing smooth so anyway and with the Canadians it was open in I did no time I did it it was interpreting and clause in the contract that you that means you mentioned so you can starting from scratch again the authorities wanting to know everything from the day I was born also I had military clearance secret clearance and all the papers but they said yes but all
these things like when you were in Africa but here sorry start what year was this well when was this what do you 1967 you came here yeah okay so anyway you know but I was restricted because I think Luis but I got really gothic everything went well we had our second child and aboard this time the girl and the boy indistinct my daughter was born in France oh boy she she's crazy she likes a non-prime some French so my wife had a good time with me descent that are we invited embassies back in France cocktails and that kind of thing because of my job it
was much less when were in the States but she was busy raising I must say that joke the past week something I wanted to mention an air out and that is to this day I bitterly regret that I didn't do more for my parents in the sense about me I bought the second one bedroom was up to date it was being built in the block of six apartments so I told that to my taste and what we needed in that car laying in the car I expressed my resentment that I missed something there and my two sisters help me out by saying doctors what you
did for the parents made a big difference in their lives at the age of the world didn't have to worry about the house they had an apartment that they were happy with and free of thinking essentially dependence also deliver strictly on us my parents will expend with nothing we lost everything back in Egypt everything back in Egypt his savings bank everything I mean to sequestered and the consent when they lived on the ship my mother's surely the soul soul if not to see that nothing was hidden in there my father's table watch yeah it's old fashioned thing the watch here and the team here of
the grape dollar and the cufflinks I mean really bad bad bad but my sister I'm telling my wife this over and over again when she says what to measure I said I mean I could have done better I wish I could have done better and I can't get away with it but I like to air it because I still believe speaking for myself I still believe that everything that accomplished I owe it to my parents and they're singing for the followers for my my brother's feeling for myself that I was in a position when my sister asked I could have said well why don't you
look for something better why don't you all our government is building and helping grab it is my life in American where were you living at the time what city were you did you settle in here that's what my parents so it was our first baby on the ship in the content and the son was born in Long Cara so either daughter born in France and the son born New York State and I would say one thing my sister-in-law I believe dies moved about got married has lived in about 18 houses so far if not going to do twenties we lived in three to three houses
because from Long Island the next job Oklahoma it's a big difference Junichi work for an Oklahoma know what what company Oh manufacturer and it helped a lot because the a is in Oklahoma State the agreement I've got explain this the agreement is for answer government level France and England and France and the US and probably England of sure have a bilateral agreement they certified our aircraft thank of our certified tears so in other words if live by one of our play anybody buys what about playing interstates they know that they don't have to worry is it okay because it's gotten us stamp of approval and
vice versa i saluted to the advantage of the frank because majority or the planes the states at the time McDonnell Douglas and I'm saying it worked beautifully there's never been a problem the cooperation is fantastic absolutely fantastic and I'm sure it's the same what I was talking about all except the first one that's why when people ask me what they do return from our biggest competitor point and equivalent oh boy so thank you sir so how long were you in Oklahoma for eight years my mother came to see us over there in addition to New York but my mother became a widow since and came
to Oklahoma workplaces my sister came to visit with us we bought the timeshare somewhere in Arkansas so whenever when we drove over talkin to show my sister or timeshare and we used to say we went to that state we went through that state to state to state to explain back home that America is not the country it's a continent practically on the stage I mean which you in huge what they don't understand which is very hard to explain is that for instance a doctor who lives in Oklahoma goes back to New York not necessary exact him sometimes they have to change the license - yes
it's the same country but every state is autonomous when they come to their own rules to explain according to the state and the number of people who the candidate - lost more votes I know okay but I want to move back to your life I don't want to hear about politics oh it's too confusing right so tell me when did you move away from Oklahoma then you were there eight years good well boom and you got a job here where did they where do they end up where do they go to college Lucy you to agree with where to go see you Texas Tech existed
okay TCU she was killed in the morning to have papers typed down the street by a lady makes a living typing papers for the students all day no they are fair the surgeons professional found Vietnam into China and they came to us and evening to say the hospital was running and I you know I made a decision like this in my life with my father to my mother the doctors the family doctor said we can go into the brain and do something but how do we scare my mother but for less no I cannot imagine my daughter I know because people grieve differently each one
individually we do our own thing with that I went to down the street the God honestly retirement homes of all people's homes and I took of one individual to go twice a week feed him keep him company but you also in the world became very friendly with his two daughters and they were grateful very grateful to me for doing what I did and I did it for people also one in particular that he was alert and everything but he had lost so I took him to and that's good stuff children gave me waivers to take him out of the establishment and you may also recommended
that kind of thing so so he was all dressed up he came to our house and you should have seen him then what a gentleman he was to meet my wife and that kind of thing but he unfortunately unfortunately Spanish father could not go so I did that time problems and that is eyes and also that's why he voluntarily settles that's my phone Thanks ignore that sorry have you been involved in any other organizations I'll pick you up without straining depending on before we end is there he was but he was covenant past all the macaroni never sketchy maybe take it down to the bait
the bait was there what so much the Baker will come on Peyton to my mother say Madame Marie money this is the bill okay we go down and buy the brand and bring it back by word bye bye trust getting back to the servant but in Egypt all there is a road plant back in Algeria and my mother she had almond and his wife and the cookies I mean that's where he they lived up there but he when you finish it she sent the to kids at school my mother she she paid for that she dressed them gate of the clothes fed them plus G's
ones maybe two ones are turning into I don't remember what push you one for since my mother was a saint in their eyes because they swing on the wrong tree the swings right in the Sun sounds like they had a good life but we're gonna end it here and I thank you very much for your wonderful story and your stories and wish you long and healthy life thank you sir you