Najeeb Elias Halaby

Najeeb E. Halaby, a lawyer, Navy test pilot and venture capitalist who headed the Federal Aviation Administration and Pan American World Airways and was the father of a queen, died in July 2003. He was 87. Long before his daughter Lisa became a celebrity as Queen Noor of Jordan, the sharp-featured and dashing Halaby was a prominent figure in the official and cultural life of Washington. President Kennedy appointed Halaby to the FAA in 1961. Najeeb Elias Halaby was born in Dallas to a mother who was a native of Texas and an Arab American father. Halaby was a graduate of Stanford University, where he was captain of the golf team, and Yale University Law School. He helped organize the Navy's first test pilot school, was a test pilot for the first U.S. jet plane, the Bell P-59, and made the first continuous transcontinental jet flight. His marriage to Doris Carlquist Halaby ended in divorce. He was married to Jane Allison Coates Halaby from 1980 until her death in 1996. Survivors include his wife of six years, Libby Cater Halaby of McLean; three children from the first marriage, Lisa, who became Queen Noor in 1978 when she married King Hussein of Jordan, Christian Halaby of Atherton, Calif., and Alexa Halaby of Washington; and 14 grandchildren.