‘‘
‘‘I think he remembers
being that kid in
Beirut with zero
opportunity,” son
Afif says. “My dad sees options
where there are none.”
Marie also believes
the travel agent, recently
rediscovered after an exhaustive
search and identified as
Cleveland native Jimmy Dorsey
(see sidebar on page 48),
saw in Ghannoum the same
genuineness she saw in him
years before when the young
Lebanese student took her
shopping for an engagement
ring on just their second date.
“With Mahmoud’s
personality, when he speaks
to someone, they know he’s
sincere,” she says. “When
he says something, it comes
straight from the heart.”
A Research
Juggernaut
Ghannoum leads me on a brisk
walk through the hallways of
University Hospital to his office
in the Wearn Building. On the
way, a passerby congratulates
Ghannoum on a recent podcast.
At 9:30 am it’s early enough for
most, but for Ghannoum, who
wakes up at 5 am each morning
to work out on his elliptical trainer,
it might as well be midday.
“He’s the kind of guy who
wakes up early in the morning
and beats everyone to the lab,”
says UCLA’s Ibrahim, who has
known him since his Kuwait years.
Ghannoum’s crowded work day
typically starts right here at the
Center for Medical Mycology.
WWW.SHAKER.LIFE | SPRING 2020 45
Dr. Ghannoum
and his wife
Marie at their
Shaker Heights
home.
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE