{"id":88071,"date":"2026-01-03T11:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88071\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T11:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:07:07","slug":"former-fort-hamilton-high-school-principal-dr-alice-farkouh-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88071\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Fort Hamilton High School principal Dr. Alice Farkouh dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Fort Hamilton High School (FHHS) Principal Dr. Alice Farkouh died Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

She was 86 and is survived by her three children and grandchildren. Her husband Charles died in 2010.<\/p>\n

Farkouh graduated from FHHS in 1957 and got her BA in Mathematics from New York University.<\/p>\n

She began her teaching career at Port Richmond High School in Staten Island before becoming the math chairperson at Prospect Heights High School.<\/p>\n

She served as the FHHS principal from 1989 to 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200bDr. Farkouh was more than just an administrator,\u201d wrote the FHHS Alumni Association Facebook Page. \u201cShe was a visionary leader who saw the highest star in every student who walked our halls. During her tenure, she transformed the landscape of the Fort, overseeing a period of incredible growth and modernization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Alice Farkouh\u2019s Fort Hamilton High School graduation photo in 1957.
\nPhotos courtesy of Fort Hamilton High School Association <\/p>\n

They added that while principal, she championed milestones for the school, such as the construction of the Thomas F. Greene Natatorium, the establishment of the Army Jr. ROTC Program and the Marching Regiment, as well as the creation of the first courtroom and the Culinary Arts classroom.<\/p>\n

She also redesigned the Honors Academy Program, supervised the building of the school\u2019s swimming pool, and formed its football team, hiring Coach Vince Laino, who helped bring attention to the school.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Farkouh worked at other Brooklyn schools before becoming principal at A. Fantis Parochial School. She wrote a memoir in 2010 called \u201cNever Say You Can\u2019t: Memoirs of a Lebanese-Syrian American Educator.\u201d<\/p>\n

She retired from being principal in 2015 and then taught at the College of Staten Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever class I teach or whenever I mentor the teachers, I tell them, \u2018Never say you can\u2019t do something,\u2019\u201d she told this paper in 2015. \u201cBy saying you can\u2019t do something, you can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also talked about her time at FHHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were going to make Fort Hamilton a trade school,\u201d she said. \u201cThis was the school that I adored. I said, \u2018No, we\u2019re going to do something different.\u2019 The faculty was excellent, and if [they weren\u2019t] excellent, I vacated them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"President of Board of Trustees Dean Paravalos, Dr Alice Farkouh, and Katherine Tsamasiros in 2015.<\/p>\n

Eagle Urban Media\/file photo<\/p>\n

Founder of the FHHS Alumni Association David Whitebook told this paper that she always showed her love for the school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI served as her assistant principal at Fort Hamilton from 1990-1997, and she always put the interests of the school, the community and the students first,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was also very much a teacher\u2019s principal in that she was really loved by them because she was very considerate of the staff. Everyone admired her. She was really loved by the students and faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Farkouh wrote a book called \u201cNever Say You Can\u2019t: Memoirs of a Lebanese-Syrian American Educator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cedars Publishing<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her own words to the Class of 1994, she reminded us that no one should discourage you or tell you that you can\u2019t do it,\u2019\u201d FHHS Alumni Association posted. \u201cShe believed that self-esteem and pride in one\u2019s school and city were the keys to a meaningful life.\u201d<\/p>\n

A wake will be held at St. Mary\u2019s Antiochian Orthodox Church, 192 81st., Jan. 4 from 3-7 p.m. The following day, the funeral will also take place at the church at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Fort Hamilton High School (FHHS) Principal Dr. Alice Farkouh died Jan. 1. She was 86 and is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-88071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}