Shoukri, Doris Enright Clark

Doris Enright Clark Shoukri (nee Enright) was born in Manhattan on July 3, 1926, and died in Cairo Egypt on February 26 , 2023 at the age of 96. She was the mother of Dr. Kamal Clark Shoukri of Farmington CT, and Karim Shoukri of Cairo, Egypt. She grew up in Yorkville, on the Upper East Side in Manhattan where she attended the Saint Joseph School followed by the Cathedral High School. She was seriously ill as a child, and spent extended periods of time at the hospital where her love of reading blossomed and where at the age of eight she read Anna Karenina. She went on to Hunter College, then Bryn Mawr and Cambridge on a Fulbright Scholarship where she obtained her PHD in Literature. She taught at Adelphi University but then traveled to Egypt in 1954 with her best friend Laila Shoukri El Hamamsy where she met her future husband and Laila's brother Dr. Mohamed Ikram Shoukri. She married in 1955 and moved to Egypt where she joined the faculty at the American University in Cairo where over a career spanning 63 years she transformed the Department of English Literature into a dynamic and highly respected Department of Comparative Literature, achieving almost legendary status among colleagues and students alike while remaining reserved and humble. She remained academically active until her late years, publishing her last book, a compendium of her literary essays at the age of 92 when she finally retired from the American University as Professor Emerita. Along the way she encountered the likes of Einstein, Eliot, Lowell, Updike, Penn-warren, Styron, Angus Wilson, Cheever, Habermas, and formed significant friendships with Marguerite Duras, Natalie Sarraute, Edward Said, and Desmond O'grady. She lost many friends along the way: Grace Clark, Joyce Foda, Edith Howard, Chafika El Hamamsy, Khayreya Khayri, George Scanlon, Ahmad Pasha Hussein, Leila Naguib, Cynthia Nelson, Marsden Jones, Elsa Milward, John Rodenbeck, Amina El Lozi, and Mahmoud El Lozi She was predeceased by her husband Mohamed Ikram Shoukri and her sisters Irene Graham and Muriel Hosking, as well as her twin brother John. She leaves behind scores of friends, colleagues and students including Leslie Croxford, Esmet Abd El Wahab, Nour El Messiri, Ferial Ghazoul, Sawsan Mardini, Samia Mehrez, and most especially Mirela Odobasic. She is survived by her sons Kamal and Karim, her grandchildren Maya Shoukri, Tarek Shoukri, Kamila Shoukri, the twins Adam and Diane Shoukri and their mother Gabriella Olteanu, and her daughters-in-law Marlene Haddad and Nadine Janho. She will be remembered for her great intelligence and wisdom, her love of poetry and music, her belief in love and beauty, and her wonderful kindness and generosity.