In Memoriam
Aizad Nawaz Khan (1929-2023)
Aizad Nawaz Khan, born September 4, 1931, passed away on August 20, 2023. He suffered heart failure shortly before 8:30 am on August 15 and went into a coma from which he never emerged. He passed away in the presence of his wife, two sons, brother, cousin, and nephew at Reston Hospital in Reston, Virginia. He was buried August 23 in the “Medina Gardens” section of the National Cemetery at 7482 Lee Highway in Falls Church, Virginia.
Aizad Khan lived a long productive life, helped many in need, and set very high standards in matters of love, forgiveness, and selfless devotion to family. He was born in the middle of the Great Depression in Ahmedpur East (now located in Pakistan), but then the second largest town in the Princely State of Bahawalpur in British India. His father, Captain Haq Nawaz Khan Khakwani, served with Bahawalpur’s First Infantry Regiment during World War II in Singapore and was a prisoner of war for 6 years. Aizad Khan was an extremely dedicated student as an adolescent. He completed grade 10 when only 12 and went on to graduate with his first degree in Civil Engineering from Sadiq Egerton College, Bahawalpur. He worked for several years in the Highway and Irrigation Departments of Bahawalpur State as well as two years working on irrigation issues in the early 1950’s in Lahore, Pakistan. He was very proud of his work on the paved road that still connects Ahmedpur East to Uch Sharif in District Bahawalpur.
While in Lahore, he met an engineer who had recently returned from study at Utah State University. Returning to Ahmedpur East, he told his father about meeting the engineer with the American degree. His father was very enthusiastic about the idea of studying Civil Engineering in the United States and agreed to fund his son’s studies at Utah State in Logan, Utah. In November 1954, he boarded a ship in Karachi, Pakistan and sailed to New York. He completed his BSc in Civil Engineering at Utah State in 1957 and moved to Chicago where he joined the Engineering Bureau of the City of Chicago’s Department of Public Works. He was an early user of Bendix G-15 mainframe computers to study urban drainage and hydrology.
In 1960, he returned to Ahmedpur East for the first time in 6 years to marry Nasreen Iqbal. They wed in June 1960 and moved together to Chicago. He worked during the day and took classes in the evening at Northwestern University. He graduated from Northwestern in 1962 with an MSc in Civil Engineering. In 1964, he became a US citizen.
In 1965, he changed career paths and began working on irrigation projects overseas. These projects were usually designed by international consultants and funded by the World Bank. From 1965 to 1968, he was based in Adana, Turkey and employed by Engineering Consultants Inc. of Denver, Colorado (ECI). His first son, Wasiq Khan, was born in Adana in July 1968. In September 1968, he moved to another consulting firm: Tahal Consultants and began working in Fortaleza, Brazil. In 1970, he moved to South Korea while continuing to work with Tahal. His second son, Sakib Khan, was born in Chunjoo, South Korea in September 1971. In the summer of 1974, he moved his family to Karachi, Pakistan for several months while he settled into his new assignment with Tahal in Bangkok, Thailand. The family joined him in Bangkok in early 1975.
In 1976, he was offered a position with the World Bank in Washington, DC. Managers at the World Bank had come to know his work in Turkey, Brazil, Korea, and Thailand very well and he was hired without an interview. From 1979-1983, he lived with his family in Jakarta, Indonesia while serving at the Bank’s Resident Mission there. His work at the World Bank included assignments in Laos, Indonesia, Somalia, Sudan, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, and Iran. He retired in 1996 as the Bank’s “Principal Irrigation Engineer.” He continued consulting with the World Bank until 2006 when he was advised against frequent travel due to a blood clot in his leg.
Aizad Khan had an infectious zest for travel. He never fussed about where he might have to stop for the night and what he might have to eat. Movement was the goal. He was happiest in the front seat of a car, in a safari suit, right hand clutching the handle above an open window, wind rushing, his voice booming on his way to the airport. He was most alive in adventure mode and happiest outside, on a plot of arable land, planning some scheme to boost the local harvest.
He was loved deeply by many for his modesty, generosity, and diligence. His greatest legacy was the example he set — showing us exactly how much one can achieve if one is careful with time, careful with money, persistent.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years Nasreen Khan, his sons Wasiq Khan and Sakib Khan, his grandsons Rafaye Khan and Kahlil Khan, as well as his brothers Ibrahim Khan of Toronto, Canada and Mahboob Khan of Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Submitted by Wasiq Khan (son)
