Although Hubert M. Close was not a Pakhtun himself, everything about him was. He served with great honor and devotion towards the Pakhtun nation. Here is a letter in his memory published by a student of his.

 Hubert Michael Close - In Memory Of

His nature is too noble for the world,
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for his power to thunder.
Shakespeare (Coriolanus III, i, 254)

It was in 1953 that my path, that of a first year college student, crossed with that of Mr. H. M. Close, the English professor at Islamia College. As I write these words to celebrate the gift of his life to the people of our province, I realize that for over 46 years I have been the recipient of his kindness and his grace. I am not, by any stretch of imagination, the only one that was touched and enriched by this soft-spoken and humble Englishman. Personal anecdotes and occasional observations tell but part of his story. To size Mr. Close is a hopelessly impossible task. How can one, pray tell, draw a circle around a person whose scope of work defies measurements with conventional yardsticks? But try we must for in his story we find a multifaceted and multidimensional man who put serving humanity above his own needs and who, in a span of 52 years, touched and shaped innumerable lives.

Fresh out of Cambridge University, Hubert Michael Close (affectionately called Haji Muhammad Close by his students) came to the sub-continent in 1937 to teach at Saint Stephen's College in Delhi. The Second World War took him to the African theatre of war where he commanded a Pathan company. After the war he returned to his teaching job at St. Stephen and made several trips to the Frontier to visit his former soldiers. During one of those visits in 1947, at the urging of Sir Olaf Caroe, then British governor, he accepted a lecturer's job at Islamia College. The love for the Pakhtuns that he had felt while commanding a Pathan company along the shores of Mediterranean, now brought him to Peshawar to be amongst the people he so much loved and admired.

At Islamia Mr. Close immersed himself in college life in a way that was unprecedented. In addition to teaching full compliment of English courses he oversaw college hostels as chief warden, conducted tutorials, oversaw the college library, organized sports and of course he conducted the dreaded compulsory military training where he would force half-asleep students out of their warm beds on icy winter mornings for mandatory cross country runs.

But his lasting legacy is his service to humanity. Here one sees his imprint not only on tens and thousands of students he taught, but also on the poor and the destitute people of our city and our province. There were handicapped children who received timely orthopedic care and became productive citizens because Mr. Close took them to the hospital for much-needed reconstructive surgeries. There are men and women alive today because Mr. Close donated his own blood time and time again and for decades persuaded his students to help stock the blood bank at Lady Reading Hospital. There are many former criminals, now law-abiding and productive citizens, who were touched by his visits to the jail to look after their welfare. There are blind that are a bit more independent today because Mr. Close helped procure books and other material for them.

In the mountains of Hazara there are tens of thousand of people who were spared the ravages of small pox or malaria because every summer Mr. Close led his students to those inaccessible areas to inoculate children and conduct anti- malaria spray. And then there are many natives who became educated because Mr. Close, in a most discrete way, paid for their education. He was the happiest when he served others. His was the noblest of the Christian tradition of serving others. In 1972 a few of his former students; Dr. Shah Rukh Chughtai, Dr. Himayat Naqvi and Dr. Abdul Haseeb and myself organized a testimonial dinner to mark his 25 years at Islamia. Responding to a small advertisement in the newspaper about 250 of his former students, a galaxy of who's who of our province and our country, traveled long distances to come to Peshawar Club to pay their tribute. He was visibly moved. It was the first time in 25 years that a group of his students had gathered to say a collective thank-you to him.