Nadia Michel Saad

Nadia M. Saad (93 yrs.) of Potomac, MD passed away on June 4, 2022, in Montgomery County, MD. Nadia was born in Damascus, Syria to Michel and Marie Saad on October 29, 1928. She was raised in Cairo, Egypt and attended French schools. At the age of 18, she left home and got on a ship to France with no means of support. She worked her way through school at the Sorbonne in Paris, working nights while earning graduate degrees in Economics and Islamic Studies. For forty years, she worked for the United Nations, first serving with the ILO (International Labor Organization) in Africa, then working in Palestinian refugee camps where she was responsible for the social and economic development of seventeen thousand refugees. Despite her life being threatened she chose to teach the Palestinian youth classes on the Holocaust. She eventually rose to be the head of the UN Environmental Program for all the Middle East and Mediterranean countries and was an expert on water issues. She later moved to the World Bank where she insisted on the inclusion of environmental considerations in Bank lending programs. All who knew Nadia knew that she spent her life dedicated to serving others, was a fierce intellect, and a constant seeker of spiritual truth. Eight years ago, she married Lawrence M. Miller and was welcomed by his family who found in her a loving stepmother and grandmother of three children and eight grandchildren. Nadia is predeceased by her brother Youssef, and is survived by her brother Fouad Saad, Micheline Giard, her husband Lawrence M. Miller, their three children (Layli, Langdon and Natasha), and eight grandchildren. She will be greatly missed by her cousins Elias, Saad, and Karkour, as well as by her many friends whose lives she touched. Memorial donations may be given to the Tahirih Justice Center (Tahirih.org) or Amnesty International, two causes that were important to her. An n intimate burial service will be held at 2PM, on June 9, 2022, at 2:00 PM EST at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia. A zoom-based funeral service will be held on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at 10:00 AM EST.