Tim Barger and Mustafa Jalali
Tim Barger is the son of former Aramco President & CEO, Thomas C. Barger, who retired in 1969. An ‘Aramco Brat’, having been born and raised in Dhahran, Tim went on to earn a BA in History from Santa Clara University.
Becoming interested in the media, Mr. Barger worked during his summer college vacations as a soundman for a National Geographic Television Special in the Eastern Province in 1965, and for the Aramco Film Unit in 1967 and 1968. From 1974 until 1977 he was employed at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh where he established the facility’s five-channel TV system and managed 28 employees in its operation. He produced and directed videos for the hospital’s employees, including an 18-episode spoken Arabic teaching program and numerous surgical videos for medical student training. In 1977 Mr. Barger established SAEECO, the Saudi Arabian Electronic Equipment Corporation, which provided technical services for video and cable television systems in the Jeddah area.
Tim is the editor and publisher of Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia 1937 - 1940. This book tells the story of his father’s adventures as a junior geologist and pioneer in the exploration for oil in Saudi Arabia and is based on the letters he sent to his wife during his first years in the Kingdom.
Mr. Barger and his beloved wife of eighteen years, Sydney Fate Barger, founded the Selwa Press publishing company. Sadly, Sydney passed away in October 2002. The company’s website, which is currently averaging 1,400 hits per day, also contains the internet’s largest collection of early photographs of the Kingdom and can be viewed at Out In The Blue.