Shouf National College was established in 1957 as a nonsectarian, nonprofit institution whose main mission was enhancing and seeking academic excellence, and raising cultural and social awareness among its students to prepare them among other things to be exemplary citizens. In the implementation of this mission, the school stresses ethics as a guiding principle.

At the time the school was established, there were no secondary schools in the Shouf District, public or private, except for one religious girls’ school.

In 1956, a unique opportunity arose when the English Mission of the Anglican Church of England, which owned the Baakline Medical Mission property, expressed its desire to sell a flat plot of land with an area of 9330 square meters and three buildings.

Professor Sa`id B. Himadeh along with Negib Alamaddine, then the Chairman of the Board of Middle East Airlines, and Mr. Farid Fuleihan, then Registrar at the American University of Beirut, formed a Board of Trustees, bought the property and established the school.

The Anglican Church’s office in Jerusalem was willing to accept a lower price than the one originally requested, when it was made aware that the property would be used to house a nonprofit school that was going to serve residents of the Shouf.

The Board launched a fund-raising campaign for the purpose of preparing refurbishing and furnishing the three buildings which were about a century old at that time, and had not been inhabited since 1920.

The school opened its doors in October 1957 as a school for day students. Later it added a section for boarding students. Initially it accepted students, boys and girls, in its Kindergarten and Primary Divisions and one grade in its Secondary Division. It was impossible to open higher secondary grades because there were no qualified students who could join because as was mentioned above, there were no secondary schools in the area. In subsequent years, an additional secondary grade was added yearly. The number of students increased from 149 in the academic year 1957-58 to 250 in 1959-60. Of these, 183 were boys and 67 girls, and they came from 23 villages.

Now the school is comprised of 13 buildings with an enrollment of 1860 students divided equally between boys and girls, coming from 48 villages, and a staff of 250 number.

1894-1991 The Founder
Prominent Economist, Professor

He was born in 1894 in Baakline and received his education at the American University of Beirut and later at Columbia University in the City of New York. After receiving his degree from AUB, Sa`id B. Himadeh joined AUB Comptroller’s Office in 1915 and began to teach in 1920. From 1937 to 1948, he headed the Department of Business and Economics, and then served as chairman of the Department of Business Administration until his retirement in 1959. Professor Himadeh also served in the public domain. He was an economic consultant to the Lebanese as well as the Iraqi governments. He was appointed Minister of Economy and Agriculture in 1966 and was appointed to many economic and financial committees linked to the United Nations. He authored and served as an editor to many economic and monetary books on Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Palestine. His books heralded a new tradition of scientific economic research and remained for years reference sources which contained authoritative material in the field. Notable books among his publications are: Monetary and Banking System in Syria, Economic Organization of Syria and Lebanon, Economic Organization of Iraq and Economic Organization of Palestine.