DHIR o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-07-13 published
KHAN,
Namir▼
Faiyaz▼
It is with the deepest regret and sorrow that we announce the
passing of Namir Faiyaz
KHAN, a brilliant teacher, writer and
actor who departed suddenly from this world on Sunday, July 10,
2005. He was born in the city of Allahabad, India on January
11, 1955 to Mumtaz Jahan
KHAN and Fayaz Bahadur
KHAN. He received
his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Political Science at Carleton
University in Ottawa. He was predeceased by his brother Nasir
KHAN and will be missed by his loving family including brothers
Nadir KHAN of Toronto and Nazir
KHAN of California, sisters Nazish
DHIR (née
KHAN) of Oakville and Nigat
HUSSIEN (née
KHAN) of Dubai,
India, numerous nieces, nephews and in-laws and his close family
of Friends including Cynthia
ROBERTS,
Arnd▼
JURGENSEN, Suzanne
ELLENBOGEN, Wendy
DIX, Mark
O'HARE, Greg
KLYMKIW and many, many
others. Namir's professional and artistic achievements are incalculable.
As a writer he co-authored numerous published works including
the books 'Healthy Cities', 'Sustainable Production' and 'Healthy
Work'. He co-wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed feature film,
'Jack of Hearts' and served as a script editor and consultant
to numerous film professionals. Namir's love for cinema was matched
by his love for teaching at numerous universities and colleges
and most recently and prominently as a lecturer at the Centre
For Technology and Social Development in the Department of Mechanical
and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto where
hundreds of students received his passionate and learned lectures.
At the Centre Namir conducted extremely valuable research and
also served as the editor of the Bulletin of Science, Technology
and Society. Namir was also a prolific actor and appeared in
a number of legendary Canadian films including Roadkill, Highway
61, Dance Me Outside, Arrowhead and Jack of Hearts. Namir's life
will be celebrated Thursday, July 14, 9: 30 a.m. at the Toronto
Necropolis located at 200 Winchester Street in Toronto. Donations
in lieu of flowers may be made to Greenpeace International or
the Canadian Film Centre. Arrangements entrusted to The Simple
Alternative Funeral Centre.
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DHIR o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-07-13 published
KHAN,
Namir▲
Faiyaz▲
It is with the deepest regret and sorrow that we announce the
passing of Namir Faiyaz
KHAN, a brilliant teacher, writer and
actor who departed suddenly from this world on Sunday, July 10,
2005. He was born in the city of Allahabad, India on January
11, 1955 to Mumtaz Jahan
KHAN and Fayaz Bahadur
KHAN. He received
his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Political Science at Carleton
University in Ottawa. He was predeceased by his brother Nasir
KHAN and will be missed by his loving family including brothers
Nadir KHAN of Toronto and Nazir
KHAN of California, sisters Nazish
DHIR (née
KHAN) of Oakville and Nigat
HUSSIEN (née
KHAN) of Dubai,
India, numerous nieces, nephews and in-laws and his close family
of Friends including Cynthia
ROBERTS,
Arnd▲
JURGENSEN, Suzanne
ELLENBOGEN, Wendy
DIX, Mark
O'HARE, Greg
KLYMKIW and many, many
others. Namir's professional and artistic achievements are incalculable.
As a writer he co-authored numerous published works including
the books "Healthy Cities", "Sustainable Production" and "Healthy
Work". He co-wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed feature film,
"Jack of Hearts" and served as a script editor and consultant
to numerous film professionals. Namir's love for cinema was matched
by his love for teaching at numerous universities and colleges
and most recently and prominently as a lecturer at the Centre
For Technology and Social Development in the Department of Mechanical
and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto where
hundreds of students received his passionate and learned lectures.
At the Centre Namir conducted extremely valuable research and
also served as the editor of the Bulletin of Science, Technology
and Society. Namir was also a prolific actor and appeared in
a number of legendary Canadian films including Roadkill, Highway
61, Dance Me Outside, Arrowhead and Jack of Hearts. Namir's life
will be celebrated Thursday, July 14, 9: 30 a.m. at the Toronto
Necropolis located at 200 Winchester Street in Toronto. Donations,
in lieu of flowers, may be made to Greenpeace International or
the Canadian Film Centre. Arrangements entrusted to The Simple
Alternative Funeral Centre.
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DHIR o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-08-01 published
Performance was gift of rock star of a prof
U of T academic talented speaker
Charismatic man mad about films
By Catherine
DUNPHY,
Obituary
Writer
Namir KHAN was such a performer -- not just in bit parts in the
films of his Friends Bruce McDonald and Peter Lynch, but also
in the classroom at University of Toronto where he taught engineering
students.
His first-year course about sustainable development, technology's
history and its role in creating a brave new environmentally
sensitive world was never popular with freshmen. Accustomed to
almost perfect papers in maths and sciences, they were suddenly
being asked by this tiny guy
(KHAN was 5 foot 1) with two degrees
in political science to think laterally, make connections and
put it all down in essay form.
But KHAN was a charismatic man, a rock star of a prof who used
to ride a motorcycle in a black leather jacket. More to the point
he was a gifted speaker, someone who could -- and did -- stand
in front of 250 students in Room 1105 in the engineering school's
Sandford Fleming Building and without notes integrate their world
with the thoughts of Martin Heidegger (his personal muse) along
with ideas from David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (a film he'd
watched hundreds of times) and then throw in references to pop
culture, The Terminator and Toronto's bicycle paths.
He was a magus, pacing, gesticulating, his rich voice enveloping
his entranced students, who would then clamour to get into the
second- and third-year courses he also taught as a professor
for the school's Centre for Technology and Social Development
in the mechanical and industrial engineering department.
"He faced a bit of resistance from faculty and students. This
was a course that had a less than positive effect on a grade
point average," said his friend and teaching colleague Arnd
JURGENSEN.
"But he was brilliant, simply brilliant, and he had an amazing
ability to make complex arguments relevant and easily understood."
It helped that there were always a couple of students who would
approach him after class to tentatively ask if he was indeed
the undertaker in McDonald's Highway 61 or the East York landlord
in Lynch's Genie-winning short film, Arrowhead.
On Sunday, July 10, Friends found
KHAN dead in his Chinatown
apartment. He was 50. He had stopped teaching last fall after
being diagnosed with Korsakoff's syndrome, a brain disorder,
but there was no conclusive cause of death stated in the coroner's
report.
"He liked centre stage: in the movies, at lectures and at dinner
parties, where at some point we would all be listening to Namir
and enjoying every minute of it," said Wendy
DIX, a former girlfriend.
"He wore his knowledge lightly. He had fun with it."
"He would leave you charged," said his nephew Meraj
DHIR, who
is working on a doctorate in film at Harvard University in good
part because of his uncle's influence.
KHAN used to take
DHIR,
29, and his younger brother Eshwin to all sorts of movies, and
talk to them about the mise en scène, the historical underpinnings,
the narrative arc, the director's eye, the rhythm and pulse of
the piece.
Born and raised in India where he used to sneak out every Saturday
to watch movies,
KHAN was the youngest of six children. His Oxford
University-educated father, the minister of education for his
state, sent his children to Jesuit school and would often invite
Hindu and Jesuit priests to dinner to broaden his children's
education.
KHAN came to Canada when he was 18 and a year later enrolled
at Carleton University for his undergraduate and master's degrees.
That's where Toronto filmmaker Cynthia
ROBERTS met him 25 years
ago.
"Namir introduced me to great movies," she said. He took her
to see Apocalypse Now on their first date.
In 1989 she introduced him to director Bruce McDonald. The two
hit it off and McDonald hired
KHAN on the spot to play a cinematographer
in a movie. It wasn't a stretch for the movie-mad academic. Soon
he became part of McDonald's regular coterie, playing the undertaker
in Highway 61, a bartender in Dance Me Outside and a photographer
in Elimination Dance.
In 1990 ROBERTS encouraged
KHAN to write a screenplay with her
three years later Jack of Hearts was produced. His last official
credit occurred in 1997 when he did a voiceover in a film Called
City of Dark, after which he recommitted himself to his academic
work. He co-authored the books Healthy Cities, Sustainable Production
and Healthy Work. He also edited the Bulletin of Science, Technology
and Society.
But he was as passionate as ever about movies at the time of
his death. He was working on a screenplay and developing a mystery
featuring a sleuth with Korsakoff's syndrome.
In his eulogy,
DHIR said that had
KHAN had time to complete any
of those projects, he was convinced his uncle would have become
a "nobel laureate for literature, or an Academy Award-winning
screenplay writer, an internationally renowned celebrity professor,
or a perennial inhabitant of The New York Times bestseller list."
Perhaps, but in the meantime, his true art was in his performances:
the ones he gave to his students, his family and, always, his
Friends.
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