At a school with a reputation for high technology, Akram Midani made art available to the masses.
Mr. Midani served as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University from 1972-89. During that time, he made more than 50 courses available to students from outside the arts and enabled them to minor in a fine-arts discipline.
Mr. Midani died Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2001, at UPMC Presbyterian hospital, Oakland, after a lengthy battle with heart disease. He was 73.
"If anyone deserves to be buried within the College of Fine Arts building proper, it would have to be Akram Midani," said Donald Marinelli, co-director of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. "He's the patron saint of the arts at Carnegie Mellon."
Born in Damascus, Syria, Mr. Midani was raised in Egypt and came to the United States in 1955. He received his bachelor's degree in fine arts from the High Institute of Dramatic in Cairo and his master's degree from New York University.
Before coming to Carnegie Mellon in 1965, Mr. Midani was a Syrian diplomat to the United Nations. He also was a critic, playwright, actor, director and scriptwriter for Radio Cairo and Radio Damascus and the director of the Arab Information Office in New York City.
By the late 1980s, Mr. Midani helped to create a film and television production program at Carnegie Mellon that involved about half of the drama students.
During his tenure, the School of Architecture created the first computer-aided design studio for undergraduates in the United States, and the School of Music set up a sophisticated laboratory for computer and electronic music.
He is survived by his wife, Watfa, an artist who has exhibited in Istanbul, Jerusalem, Cairo, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The funeral will be private.
