The author, Ron Bergquist, Ph. D, is a teaching associate professor in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mr. Bergquist studied Middle East geography and history at the University of Texas at Austin during the mid-1960s with Dr. Paul English (1936-2000) and Dr. George Arnakis (1912-1976).
In the mid-1970s, while studying to become a Middle East Area Specialist in the U.S. Air Force, he studied Middle East culture and politics at the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA) with Kamil Said (1914-2003), Dr. John Amos and Dr. Ralph Magnus (1936-2000).
As part of the NPS program, he studied the Arabic language at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (Presidio of Monterey, CA)
with Jad Katrib (1926-1998).
Mr. Katrib always called him by his Arabic name, Rashid.
Mr. Bergquist served as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Air Force for over 26 years and retired at the rank of Colonel on 1 January 1995.
The Arab Bridge