Michael Rafat Souryal

Michael Rafat Souryal, age 51, of Arlington, Virginia, entered into eternal rest with the Lord on June 16th after a hard-fought battle with gastric cancer. He was a faithful, loving husband, father, son and friend to many people from far and wide across the globe. His calm, wise and humble approach to life earned him the admiration of nearly everyone he came in contact with, and his quiet wit brought a smile to many faces.

Michael was born in Washington, D.C. to Rafat and Ivonne Souryal on December 9, 1968. As a child he attended the Arabic Baptist Church and Barcroft Bible Church where he developed a deep and life-long relationship with Jesus. He graduated from Falls Church High School, valedictorian of the class of 1986. He attended Cornell University where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, participated in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and met his wife Karen, whom he married in 1992. He began his accomplished engineering career at Bellcore/Telcordia in New Jersey after earning a M.S. in information networking from Carnegie Mellon University. He and Karen then moved to Philadelphia and later spent a year in Cairo studying Arabic at the American University before settling in Arlington in 1999. He completed his education with a D.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University in 2004.

Michael worked as a senior research engineer in wireless communications for the National Institute of Standards in Technology where he began in 2004 as an NRC Postdoctoral Fellow. While there he led the spectrum sharing research team of the Wireless Networks Division and co-authored over 50 technical publications in communication theory, signal processing and spectrum sharing. He also held an adjunct appointment as Professorial Lecturer at George Washington University. He received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award for his work in 2019.

He was a faithful follower of Christ throughout his life and most recently served as deacon at Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington. However, his greatest joy was in his three young children Isaac, Georgia and Elijah who will live to carry on his legacy of kindness, integrity and humor.

Michael is preceded in death by his father, Rafat and is survived by his wife Karen, his three children, his mother Ivonne, as well as many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends in the U.S. and around the world.

Memorials in Michael’s name may be given to the V Foundation for Cancer Research at www.v.org, or to the Mission and Benevolence Fund of Memorial Baptist Church, 3455 N Glebe Road, Arlington VA 22207, www.memorialbaptistchurch.org/.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, June 20th at 11am at Memorial Baptist Church. Due to Covid restrictions, live attendance at the service is unfortunately limited and must be requested at https://tinyurl.com/MSservice0620. However it will be live-streamed for all who wish to attend virtually at www.memorialbaptistchurch.org/.