After I graduated from college, I worked in film and TV for six years before I returned to Arabia in January of 1974 to start up the television department at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. I was one of the first 20 American employees, and the hospital was still being built when I arrived.
In the special world that is ExPat life in the Aramco camps of Saudi Arabia, institutions taken for granted by people living elsewhere than in the Kingdom such as Little League baseball, Toastmasters, and Boy Scouts...
In 1950, the Girl Scout Cookie sale came to Saudi Arabia for the first time. In the photograph below, fourteen-year old Mariner, Louise Snyder of Stamford, Connecticut, gives cartons of cookies to her father, L.M. Snyder, Vice-President of Arabian American Oil Company, to deliver to the Girl Scouts in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 9000 miles away.
At 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the 26th of April 1979, our undaunted troop of fresh-faced ExPat voyagers grabbed a Saudia flight in Dhahran and flew to Jeddah, where we encountered a planeload of pilgrims from Pakistan...
The appointment of Princess Reema bint Bandar as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US has been welcomed by foreign diplomatic missions in the Kingdom. Princess Reema made history last Saturday when she was appointed to the role, becoming the first Saudi woman to be named ambassador.
There is stupid, and then there is another category even dumber than stupid. At seventeen, I was pretty much the poster child for beyond stupid though it wasn’t entirely my fault.
People unfamiliar with the geological and climate history of the Arabian Peninsula are often surprised to learn that lakes and streams and verdant flora once graced areas where today one finds only...
Knowing how to navigate through the different stages of life can help set you and your family up for success for generations to come. Join Reilly Financial Advisors for a seminar that provides the information needed to prepare for many of life’s hurdles.
Anyone using a computer to read this story owes a debt of gratitude to the month of September in the year 1958. For it was in that month and year, in the Central Research Labs of Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas...
In April 1979, in pursuit of spring break thrills, a largely untested band of young American ExPats living in Saudi Arabia and working for Aramco launched an unlikely assault on the treacherous upper reaches of the Euphrates River in eastern Turkey.
Life moves on, but so too does remorse. Contemplating our crime I began to think that Milt and I had done a great service to Aramco. Now all the radios would be more secure, or at least the windows rolled up and the truck doors locked.
Like the hyper-kinetic Energizer Bunny in those omnipresent battery commercials, some people just keep going and going and going. Take the family of John “David” LaRue. David, Badge Number 196810, will need to keep himself...
As far back as I can remember the fundamental rule of life was to never walk along a street when an alley was available. The alleys of Dhahran offered so many advantages that Milt and I could never figure why the adults didn’t use them too.
In a conversation the other day with a retired high school librarian, I happened to mention Aramco. Much to my surprise, without any prompting from me, she launched into a long paean in praise of the company’s signature publication, AramcoWorld...
Knowing how to navigate through the different stages of life can help set you and your family up for success for generations to come. Join Reilly Financial Advisors for a seminar that provides the information needed to prepare for many of life’s hurdles.
By the early 1950s, the extravagant waterskiing shows at places like Cypress Gardens in Florida had ignited a rage for waterskiing that swept the nation.
The Saud dynasty and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claim as their common birthplace ad-Dir’iyah, the sprawling fortified complex of mud brick/adobe mosques, palaces, battlements, and various other clay-colored structures located 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Riyadh...
Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday that it will start developing the first urban area of NEOM, the Kingdom’s planned $500 billion mega-city. The founding board, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, approved the masterplan concept for NEOM Bay, which will include homes, lifestyle and tourist facilities, and “innovation centers.”
And just like that, it's 2019! Take a look back at 2018's highlights and the community's favorite photos, articles and celebrations. Thanks to all our readers, contributors, and sponsors for another great year.
A person’s health is the starting point to enjoying life to the fullest and achieving one’s goals, both personal and professional. Aramco has long been aware of this basic tenet, as witnessed to by the extensive health care programs it has established for its employees.