Samàan Albir Tarsha

Funeral: 10 a.m. Monday at St. Andrew Catholic Church, 3314 Dryden Road, Fort Worth.

Interment: Laurel Land Memorial Park of Fort Worth.

Visitation: 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday in Laurel Land Memorial Chapel with rosary at 7 p.m.

Memorials: In lieu of flowers or gifts, please donate to House of Hope in Crowley, crowleyhouseofhope.org; American Diabetes Association; or UNICEF.org.

Sama'an was born March 25, 1940, in Jerusalem, Palestine, before the war. He had a genius IQ, with a compassionate heart that never turned away a person in need. He loved to socialize and tell stories and never met a stranger, making everyone he met feel like a lifelong friend. Mr. Tarsha came to the United States in 1959 as a student of TCU, studying physics in mathematics in 1964 and received a teaching certification in 1965. He received a master of sciences of applied mathematics in 1976 while working as an aerospace engineer for General Dynamics in 1976, as the F-16 Fighter Development Special Project engineer.

Sama'an Tarsha ventured into entrepreneurship by opening his own restaurant in the 1970s and named it the Rig Restaurant. In 1981, he moved the Rig Restaurant to its current location on Highway 35 where it is still a popular family restaurant today.

In 1988, he was the partner and co-inventor of seven United States patents, to renovate existing pipelines worldwide, technologies still utilized to this day.

Sama'an was preceded in death by a grandson, Connor.

Survivors: His wife of 53 years, Janis; son, Albir; daughters, Carolyn, Maria and Adrianna; grandchildren, Megan, Mary, Ginger, Evelyn, Peter, Trey, Marilyn, Antonio, Janel, Nicholas, Isabella and Sama'an; and five great-grandchildren.