Zahra Naghibi and Mohammad Abaspour Ghadi

Zahra Naghibi, 32, came to Windsor in September 2017 to be a PHD student in environmental engineering at the University of Windsor, and her husband, Mohammad Abaspour Ghadi, 33, a civil engineer working in construction, followed later that year in November.

Naghibi was starting the third year of her degree, which involved designing a greenhouse.

“She was really outstanding,” said Neda Rezaei, a friend and fellow student.

Naghibi was president of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air- Conditioning Engineers, a group of environmental engineers that staged events and brought in speakers from academia and industry across Canada. She also wanted to collaborate with other groups of engineers and became chairperson of the local Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, from which she received an outstanding service award.

She was also “crazy for reading books,” Rezaei said, and loved aerobics and yoga.

Ghadi was well known in the local Iranian community as an administrator of a group called What News About Windsor on the Telegram Messenger app. The group offered practical help for Iranian immigrants.

“He helped people very much,” Niloufar Javid, a friend, said. “He was a very good listener. He was very knowledgeable about Iranian and Canadian laws.”

Ghadi was also an avid reader of history, and every weekend, he and Naghibi, who both loved nature, headed out to the woods.

Ghadi leaves behind a sister, who came to Windsor several months ago to do a PHD in electrical engineering and live near her brother.