Antoun Jabbour Asfour

Antoun (Tony) Asfour passed away on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, in a rehab center in Mitchelville, Maryland while recovering from an operation for a broken hip following a fall. Tony had Alzheimer's but he lived a full life and died one month shy of his 88th birthday. His life is being celebrated by his family and the numerous members of his extended community, who live in various corners of the world.

A traveler in more ways than one with an unfading, warm smile, Tony moved several times reinventing himself at each stage. His life spanned many countries. Born in Palestine on June 13, 1932, he grew up in Shefa-'Amr near the coastal town of Haifa, and in 1948 at age 16, moved to Beirut, Lebanon. He worked for many years as the regional director at NCR. He married Margueritte Ghattas in 1964 and they had four children. In 1974, he established an industrial engineering firm in Lebanon, for which he  traveled to several Arab countries. The family remained in Beirut until 1986 when they emigrated to the United States and settled in Greenbelt, Maryland. There he worked as a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker Stevens until he retired.  

Tony was a loving human being (“one of the good ones” as many have pointed out). He was a kind, generous, open-minded and thoughtful person who taught his children to treat everyone with respect. He had a joyful personality and loved to play with words, deconstructing them to form other words. He believed in what the French philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote: “Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.”

To wit, Tony was a gentleman, and a gentle man. His radiant smile and his unremitting love is what he will be most remembered by. 

Tony is survived by his wife and four children: Jabbour (Gabi) Asfour, Ghassan (Julien) Asfour, Ghada Asfour (Keith Scruggs) and Nawal (Nana) Asfour. He is also survived by his eldest brother, Joseph Asfour and his six grandchildren, Layla Scruggs, Kyle Scruggs, Luke Scruggs, Noor Asfour-Dolle, Liveon Asfour and Lara Mullen. 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you please make a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association in honor of Antoun Asfour.