Malouf Abraham, Jr.

Abraham's Citadel Garden in Canadian, Texas, open to the public, Thursdays-Sundays

"The truth is mighty and it shall prevail", inscription on door of Citadel Garden

Outdoor sculpture at Citadel Garden

Malouf Abraham, Jr. (born March 29, 1939), is an American physician. He is a retired physician and active art collector from Canadian, a community in the Texas Panhandle and the county seat of Hemphill County.

The Citadelle

The Citadelle, operated by the Citadelle Art Foundation, is centered around Abraham's combination $7 million residence/art museum in Canadian, Texas, called "The Citadelle" or "Citadel Garden".^[1] The mansion is located in the former First Baptist Church building.,^[2][3] and has been featured on Home and Garden Television.^[4]

The Citadelle includes the Abraham mansion, gardens and grounds, furnishings, decorative arts and the Iris & Oofie Abraham Gallery.

Biography

Abraham was born to businessman Malouf Abraham, Sr., who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1967 to 1971, and the former Iris Lewis (1918–2001), a descendant of a pioneer Hemphill County family,^[5] which included his grandfather, Nahim Abraham,^[6] and his uncle, Tom Abraham, the owners of a former regionally known department store called "The Fair Store".^[7]

In 1961, Abraham obtained his undergraduate degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. There is an endowed scholarship there in his name, underwritten by his parents.^[8] He then procured his medical degree in 1964 from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.

After graduation from medical school, Abraham interned in Savannah, Georgia. Thereafter, on receipt of a draft notice for the Vietnam War, he enlisted as a captain and military doctor in the United States Air Force, Strategic Air Command. He remained stateside, mostly in Bossier City, across the Red River from Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana, and for his work treating military personnel returning from Vietnam with allergies received the Air Force Commendation Medal.

Until 2001, Abraham had operated an allergy clinic in Canadian for thirty-five years.^[9]

Patron of the arts

In 1972, the Abrahams obtained a Norman Rockwell painting, The First Day of School, and started a collection which now includes works by J. C. Leyendecker, William Bouguereau, and Craig Bone.

Though none of his family members are Southern Baptist, Abraham in 1996 donated the "Malouf Abraham Family Art Center" to Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas. One of the pieces in the collection is Rockwell's The First Day of School in which a mother readies her son as he leaves home for the first day of school, while the boy's sister looks on in disinterest. The collection includes a mosaic cross bought at the Vatican Mosaic School and personally blessed by Pope John Paul II.^[10]

In 1995, then Governor George W. Bush, appointed Abraham to the Texas Commission on the Arts.^[11]

Abraham is married to the former Therese Browne (born 1936), a native of Mount Airy in eastern North Carolina. The couple married c. 1964 in the Mount Airy Roman Catholic Church, which the Browne family helped to build with granite from their own quarry. Like her father-in-law, Therese Abraham is a former mayor of Canadian, having served from 1981-1991.^[4][12] The Abrahams have three sons, all residing in Hemphill County, Eddie Christopher Abraham, a cattle rancher; Salem Abraham, a futures trader with offices in the Moody Building in Canadian, and Jason Abraham, a horse rancher.

Malouf and Therese Abraham divide their time between Canadian and a second home in Sarasota, Florida.

References