Dean's journey led to a permanent home in UD’s 'culture of caring'

In 1977, Joseph E. Saliba ended a long road from home at the doorstep of the university that would mold his character, envelop his heart and excite his intellect. Three degrees later, he's continuing his time at UD as the School of Engineering's dean.

As Saliba talks of a difficult decision to leave his mother, father and siblings in his hometown of Bteghrine, Lebanon, his eyes start to mist. It was 1976, a time of war. Saliba's family knew the best place for him to live and learn was somewhere safe, possibly in America.

Again and again, the city of Dayton, Ohio, came into conversations about where Saliba should head. Marianist brothers from Dayton influenced the learning climate in his hometown by helping reopen Saint Joseph School in 1963. Saliba's distant cousins, the family of Helen Sawaya, would tell him, "If you want to go to the United States, we have UD."

"Even in Lebanon," Saliba says, "everybody knew the reputation UD had as one of the best undergraduate engineering programs in the United States."

Saliba's circuitous road to Dayton included a caravan trip over the mountains to escape Lebanon, followed by time in Brazil and France while awaiting a student visa to the United States. A network of family and community helped carry him to safety and got him his visa.

The visa got him six weeks of English lessons at Western Michigan University. The recommendation of another cousin, who was currently attending UD, gained him admission into the UD engineering school.

At age 22, he arrived in Dayton with a readiness to learn, few English skills and even less tuition money. The Catholic, Marianist nature of UD had drawn him here, and that same spirit would help him stay.

He recalls the names of those from across the campus who helped him excel and find jobs to support himself and siblings who also came to UD, including Tony Saliba '81, now chemical and materials engineering chair. Civil engineering professor Roger Weiss taught Saliba concepts and theories by reducing problems to their universal language: math. Jean Huart, who coordinated international student services, provided home-cooked meals and English lessons. Brother James Kline, S.M., found Saliba his first campus job moving furniture. Father Cy Middendorf, S.M., "was like a shepherd to us," Saliba says, offering Mass for UD's Lebanese students and healing their homesickness through counsel and company.

Saliba received his bachelor's degree in two years, master's in one and doctorate in three.

When he finished, Saliba looked around the country for a teaching position. He also turned his gaze back at UD. His life, he reflected, was like a vocation; he followed a calling, learned, developed a community and was now in a position to help others. "How can you leave a place like this?" he asks.

It's what he calls a "culture of caring," and he continues it to this day.

He's taken on the role of a reference, an arbitrator in professional disputes and an adviser. He visits his co-op students and alumni across the country and is constantly impressed with their successes.

"I probably get invited to all their weddings," he says with a laugh. "Yeah, they're my students, but at the same time we're good friends. They're people that I care about."

He's reflected on what it means to be Catholic, Marianist and an engineer, and incorporates that into his teaching. For example, Saliba has teamed with visual arts professor Sean Wilkinson to create an interdisciplinary course that investigates the issues of belonging, community and longevity tied to physical objects, structures and places.

Saliba begins each class with a prayer and, for the first time this year, handed out prayer books from the rector's office to entering students.

"I feel that Catholic and Marianist charisms can be taught by example by the [engineering] faculty as effectively as they can be by the College," he says. "I want the students to have a Marianist experience in the School of Engineering as well as across campus."

After spending 26 years teaching — seven as department chair — the practicing structural engineer knows a lot about foundations. The Marianists provided Saliba one for his education and his life. The School of Engineering, he says, also has a strong foundation built on outstanding faculty, bright and diverse students and a dedicated staff.

"We have the creative power to imagine, design and build things that have never been," he says.

This vision, and a continuing acceptance to pursue the challenges in his path, will usher Saliba along his path as he continues to make UD his home.

—Michelle Tedford