William Shaheen was the youngest of five siblings, a musician of the violin and oud, a composer, an optician, and a teacher. He was all of these things, and even then he was at his core an incredible brother, uncle and friend to so many. He passed peacefully on Saturday, October 1st surrounded by his family. The world has lost an incredibly gentle and kind human. William was fiercely loyal to his family, to his friends, to his staff, and his workplace of over two decades. He didn’t ask much of anyone else but he lived a life of care and service to so many, and was a caregiver for both his mother and his sister before their passing.
William’s leadership shone through in his work as an instructor of two decades at the annual Arabic Music Retreat, as a manager at Costco for two decades, and as a music teacher of students ranging in age from 7 to 70s. He believed that anything was possible, and you could see it in the work he put into teaching others, exercising, learning new crafts like glasswork, and personally renovating entire sections of his home. William loved through the giving of his time and his reliability. He taught us all so much, not the least of which was humility.