The Naef K. Basile Foundation was created to fulfill the dream of Dr. Naef Khoury Basile to establish a comprehensive cancer center in his native land of Lebanon. (See Dr. Basile's life and work here.)
About the Foundation
After a quarter century of diligently building and preserving a fund for this project and several years of consulting and planning with leaders and medical professionals in Lebanon, Dr. Basile died in 1995 without having fulfilled his longest held dream, to leave a vital and lasting medical legacy for the people of Lebanon.
His family decided that Dr. Basile's vision must be realized. After having secured UK and US recognition of Dr. Basile's private fund for this project as a charitable trust, in 1998 the Basile family established the Naef K. Basile Foundation (NKBF) for that purpose.
Starting Over
Although Dr. Basile had considered several
possible locations for his project, the board of the Foundation had to begin that process again.
Under the leadership of Dr. Basile's widow,
Rebecca (see more about Rebecca Basile below), the Foundation investigated viable sites in Lebanon for the cancer center, which would need to be affiliated with and in close proximity to a general hospital for all of the medical services the center would not include.
In 2000, at an AUB alumni conference held in Chicago, Illinois, the Foundation's decision was announced: the American University of Beirut Medical Center would be the site of the
Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute (NKBCI).
The years immediately following that decision were devoted to detailed planning between the Foundation board and AUB leaders in their cooperative oversight of the project. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at Building 56 in May of 2004, but there was much more work to be done: extensive renovations in Building 56 and in the primary hospital facility, the Phase II Building.
Bronze plaque that is displayed at the Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute at AUBMC.
May 2004 – Groundbreaking event for the NKBCI at Building 56 on the AUBMC campus. Left to right: Dr. Nadim Cortas, AUB Dean of Medicine; Stephen Raynor, NKBF Trustee, M. Theresa Basile, (then) NKBF Vice President; John Waterbury, President of AUB; Dr. Victor Hoffbrand, NKBF Trustee, and Gladys Mouro, Director of Nursing, AUBMC.
Changes in the Foundation Board
The NKBF lost the inspirational leadership of its founding president when Rebecca Basile died in March of 2007. The board also lost two other founding members in the years before the NKBCI began operation. Stephen Raynor, the prominent London solicitor who had overseen the establishment of the Foundation as a UK charity, died in 2006. Later that same year, Dr. Victor Hoffbrand, eminent hematologist-oncologist whose indispensable expertise had guided the NKBF in its search for the cancer center's location, retired from medical practice and from the Foundation board.
Hamid El Zeenny, a distinguished Lebanese attorney and first cousin of Dr. Naef K. Basile, together with his wife Sonia, provided tireless and invaluable assistance to Dr. Basile in his early planning for the cancer center during Dr. Basile's many trips to Lebanon for that purpose. Mr. El Zeenny served on the Foundation's board from 2004 until 2013.
Also joining the NKBF board in 2004 was Mr. Salim El Meouchi, one of Lebanon’s pre-eminent attorneys and legal advisors, in practice for over 5 decades. Mr. El Meouchi is the Chairman & Senior Partner at Badri and Salim El Meouchi Law Firm in Beirut and Badri and Salim El Meouchi LLP, located in Qatar. (Learn more about Mr. El Meouchi)
One of the leading oncologists in the United States, Lebanese-American Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri joined the NKBF board in 2005. He was then the Chair of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Deputy Director for the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. In 2015, Dr. Khuri became the President of American University of Beirut. (Learn more Dr. Khuri)
Naef and Rebecca's daughter, M. Theresa Basile, succeeded her mother as NKBF President and has continued to serve in that capacity to the present. Mr. El Meouchi and Dr. Khuri also continue to serve as Foundation trustees.
M. Theresa Basile
NKBF President
Salim Badra El Meouchi,
NKBF Trustee
Fadlo Raja Khuri, NKBF Trustee
April 2009 – Program cover for the dedication of the Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute at AUBMC. The artwork used for this cover was selected from a collection on the history of medicine belonging to Dr. Naef K. Basile, which is displayed in the NKBCI.
The Dream Fulfilled
In 2008, four years after the groundbreaking event, ten years after the founding of the Naef K. Basile Foundation, and 37 years after Dr. Basile first began setting aside funds for the gift he envisioned for his native Lebanon, the NKBCI began operation with outpatient services located on the 2nd floor of Building 56 and inpatient care on the 8th floor of the Phase II Building. The dedication events for the NKBCI were held in April 2009, to coincide with the annual the Middle East Medical Assembly at AUB.
April 2009 – M. Theresa Basile, President of the Naef K. Basile Foundation, cuts the ribbon at the entrance of Building 56 at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), for the dedication of the Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute (NKBCI). Behind her, left to right: Salim El Meouchi (NKB Foundation Trustee) Peter Dorman (President of AUB), Dr Fadi Geara (Director of the NKBCI), Dr. Fadlo Khuri (NKB Foundation Trustee), Ibrahim Melhem (cousin of Naef K. Basile), Dr. Nadim Cortas (AUB Dean of Medicine), Dr. Ali Shamseddine (AUBMC), Dr. Ali Taher (AUBMC), Nayla Shukri (Nurse Manager, NKBCI), Dr. Nagi Saghir (AUBMC), and Dr. Ziad Salem (AUBMC).
Mavis Rebecca Basile
1919 – 2007
Everyone knew her as Rebecca or Becky, the devoted wife of Dr. Naef K. Basile for more than forty years. After the doctor’s death in 1995, his family decided that his goal for a quarter century, to leave a vital and lasting medical legacy for the people of Lebanon, must be fulfilled.
It was really Rebecca's determination that made that happen. She dedicated herself to fulfilling Dr. Basile’s plan to establish a comprehensive cancer center in Lebanon. She ensured that her husband’s fund for the project was preserved for that purpose and oversaw the establishment of the Naef K. Basile Foundation.
Bronze plaque honoring Dr. Basile's wife that is displayed in the NKBCI.
Rebecca served as the Foundation's president and guiding spirit until her death in 2007, leading the board of trustees in their choice of a location for the institute as well as the development of plans for its realization. In 2000, the foundation announced its choice of the American University of Beirut Medical Center as the site for the cancer institute and embarked on the detailed planning for the institute with leaders at AUB.
There is no doubt that, without Rebecca Basile's determination to fulfill her husband's plan and preserve the spirit of his vision in the execution of that plan, the NKBCI would not exist today.
