Rashid Muhammad-Said al-Rifai, (Arabic:رشيد محمد-سعيد الرفاعي) (1 May 1929 – 3 September 2009 inAmman[citation needed]), was an Iraqiacademic,Ba'athist,ambassador andminister of several establishments inIraq.
He was most noted for his highly successful posts asOil,Planning,Housing,Communications andTransportation Minister Between 1968 and 1975. Rifai is credited for playing a major role in thedevelopment of the Iraqiinfrastructure during this seven-year period.
He was later made Ambassador by special appointment to Belgium (1975–1983), China (1983–1986) and Japan (1986–1993). After retiring in 1993, he served as an adviser to the Iraqi Foreign Minister, a member of the Iraqi Presidential Opinion Committee and a member of the House of Wisdom inBaghdad, Iraq until the invasion and subsequent downfall of the government on April 9, 2003.
Rifai remained in Baghdad for the next three years but refused to participate in the new government on ideological bases. He left Baghdad in 2006 after the situation became intolerable and lived there with his wife, Nabiha al-Timimi in theHashemite Kingdom ofJordan. They have four children.
Rashid al-Rifai was born in Baghdad, thecapital of Iraq at a time when it was very underdeveloped, the son of Muhammad-Said Alwan Rifai (1888-1979) a customs official who was originally from the city ofAl Musayyib inBabilProvince south of the Capital. His mother, Fatima was a housewife until her death in 1982. As the oldest male in a family of seven children (2 girls and 5 boys), he spent most of his youth supporting hissiblings.
As a child, Rashid had an above averageIQ, and says that he wanted to be anelectrical engineer ever since he could remember. After graduating fromhigh school withhonors, Rifai received ascholarship to theAmerican University of Beirut(AUB),Lebanon in 1949. There, while majoring inMathematics, he became a member of theIraqi Regional Branch of the pan-ArabArab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1953. After graduating from AUB with honors, Rifai returned to Baghdad and was subsequently employed by the Iraqi National Telephone Company.
Rifai received another scholarship, this time to theUniversity of Bristol in the UK after the 1958 revolution which brought down the IraqiMonarchy at the time. Once again graduating with honors after four years, he returned again to the National Telephone Company in Baghdad.
Another scholarship came subsequently, this time toPurdue University inIndiana, United States. There Rashid graduated earned hisM.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with honors which culminated in yet another scholarship atRice University inHouston,Texas, this time earning him aPh.D. in the same subject.
Rashid al-Rifai died on the evening of 3 September 2009 at his home in Amman, Jordan.[citation needed]