College loses friend and Foundation member

Dr. Nagui El Bayadi

Southwestern Community College lost a good friend and benefactor on April 30 when Dr. Nagui R. El Bayadi passed away at his residence. The retired Sylva doctor, a native of Cairo, Egypt, had been a resident of Sylva for the past 36 years and a member of the SCC Foundation since 2002.

In 2003 Dr. and Mrs. (Marion) El Bayadi established a $15,000 scholarship endowment for the college’s health science programs. They established the scholarship to provide deserving students from Jackson, Macon and Swain counties and the Qualla Boundary with financial assistance toward their education.

“Through Dr. El Bayadi’s generosity and commitment to his community, students in health care programs at Southwestern will have the financial support they need to complete their education,” Sonja Haynes, executive director of the SCC Foundation said.

“He will long be remembered and honored for his generosity to deserving students who want to follow him into the health care field,” added Dr. Cecil Groves. “He will also be remembered as a warm friend and colleague here at the college. He was a mainstay and support for the Foundation and made a strong commitment to its projects and goals. We have been indeed fortunate to have known him and I feel personally fortunate to have been able to call him my friend.”

Dr. El Bayadi, a strong believer in education, received his medical training from Ain-Shams University in Cairo and he completed a one-year internship and two years as a surgical resident at that university’s hospital. Additionally, he was in Senior House Office in Surgery in St. Mary’s Hospital, Isle of Wight, England, and was a resident of Plastic Surgery in Salisbury, England.

After coming to the United States, Dr. El Bayadi completed an internship at the Internship Graduate Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania and a surgical residency at VA Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where he served as Chief Resident.

In 1969 Dr. El Bayadi moved to Sylva where he practiced medicine for 32 years, specializing in surgery. During his practice, he was on the surgical staff of C.J.

The late Dr. Nagui R. El Bayadi with fellow Foundation Board member Paul Holt enjoy a good laugh at a Foundation event.

Harris Hospital then Post Chief of the department of surgery when the facility became Harris Dr. El Bayadi was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1963), an Associate Member of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons (1964), a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (1972), a Fellow of the American Society of Abdominal Surgeons (1973), a member of the NC Medical Society since 1969, a member of the Jackson County Medical Society since 1969, a Board Certified surgeon of the American College of Surgeons (1980), a member of the American Society of Liposuction Surgery (1987), an Associate Member of the American Academy of Liposuction Surgery since 1988, an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, and a member of the InterAmerican Society of Cosmetic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 1990.

In addition to being a member of the SCC Foundation, Dr. El Bayadi was a member of Sylva Rotary Club and The Town and College Club. He was also a Senior Warden of St. Johns Vestry Church in Sylva.

He is sorely missed by all who knew him.

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