Obaid Mohammed Ali Al Taboor
Founding Principal of Ras Al Khaimah Secondary School · Pioneer of education in the Emirate.
“A friend to knowledge, and a carrier of its banner.”
The measure of a quiet, exacting life
The most senior Emirati school principal in the Ras Al Khaimah education zone — honoured as Personality of the Year on World Teachers' Day, 2014.
From a fisherman's house to a generation of nation-builders
The journey of a teacher who shaped the corridors of public life.
- Ras Al Khaimah · 1947 — Origin: a fisherman's son.
- Sharjah · 1964 — Al Orouba School.
- Dubai · 1967 — Dubai Secondary School.
- Beirut · 1971–1975 — University, the Paris of the Middle East.
- Alexandria · 1975–1977 — Graduated 1977.
- Ras Al Khaimah · 1977 — Home, with a philosophy of order.
Photographs & clippings from a life in education
Tributes from those whose lives he touched
He was a beacon of educational leadership. For twenty-nine years, he led RAK Secondary School with wisdom and compassion that is rare to find.
Dr. Ahmed Al QaishiEducational Leader
The educational knight has dismounted after a life abundant in building humanity. He loved his mission, making it the symphony of his heart.
Dr. Hisham DawoodFellow Educator
I knew him as a distinguished teacher, combining knowledge, good morals, and humility. He never spared any effort to ensure we excelled.
Adel Al MutawaStudent, Class of 1983
What endures
What Obaid Al Taboor built cannot be counted in buildings or budgets. He built a culture — and a generation.
The school he founded stands in Al Nakheel. The mosque he raised — the Obaid Al Taboor Mosque — stands in Al Juwais, beside the ancestral farmland. And the students he shaped stand in every corridor of public life in the United Arab Emirates.
His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, paid condolences in person — praying that God envelop the departed in His mercy and grant his family patience and solace.
He rests, as his students prayed he would, in the highest of God's gardens.