Rachid Ghachem
Rachid Ghachem, 72, of Hackettstown, New Jersey, passed away unexpectedly, Thursday, January 4, 2018, at home.
Born October 3, 1945, in Teboulba, Tunisia, Rachid was the son of the late Taieb and Bechira (Belkahla) Ghachem.
He and his wife, Lydia Ann (Cummins) Ghachem, celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary on September 6, 2017.
Rachid graduated from high school in Sousse, Tunisia at the lycée de garçon de Sousse. He studied hotel and tourism management at the Institute d’Hotellerie et du Tourism in Sidi Dhrif, Tunisia and later earned his degree in hotel management at Cornell University in1969, where he and Lydia met.
He worked in the hospitality industry in New York City as auditor and manager for 37 years. Most of his career was spent at the Omni Berkshire Hotel.
Having the gift of creativity, Rachid loved to develop his talents in the areas of: gardening, cooking, photography, and crafting, especially with gourds grown from his garden. He was a lover of travel, music, and dance and spent much of his spare time communicating with family and friends on Facebook, where he loved to send pictures of his family, friends, and his experiences and activities. Rachid was a lover of people and animals. He especially loved nature and spent much time feeding the birds and squirrels in the backyard. He was a fan of sports, especially soccer, which he played in Tunisia on the national soccer team in Sousse. He passed down his passion and skills to both of his daughters.
Rachid loved life and had the ability to find humor in all aspects of everyday life. He loved to joke and make people laugh. He was a strong believer in human rights, equality, commonalities of the entire human race, and freedom of the human spirit.
Rachid was a supporter of the Hackettstown Committee for Crime Prevention (HCCP) and Teen Nights held at the Hackettstown Middle School and the Hackettstown Community Pool.
Surviving in addition to his wife, Lydia Ann, are a daughter, Rachel Ghachem Sutton, and her husband Jack, of Milford, PA and a daughter, Noreen Ghachem and her wife, Elena Maucere, of Ewing, NJ. He is also survived by two grandchildren, Jessica and Eric Sutton.
Rachid has a large family in Tunisia. He was predeceased by four brothers and sisters: Faiza Oueslati, Zohra Tekaya, Noureddine Ghachem and Fathi Ghachem. He is survived by his sister, Monia Belkahla. In addition, he has 17 nieces and nephews (Sami, Mohsen, Samia, Mouna, Taher, Arafet, Arabia, Sophia, Chiraz, Leila, Khalifa, Eskander, Dhekra, Hanen, Bechira, Mohamed, and Saber). He also is survived by his brothers-in-law Abdelhakim Tekaya and Abdeljelil Belkahla and his sisters-in-law Maria and Zohra as well as numerous great nieces and nephews. Dozens of cousins remain, including his best friend, Salem Ghachem.
Most of all, he loved his family.
Viewing will be held at the Cochran Funeral Home, 905 High Street, Hackettstown, NJ on Monday, January 15th from 2 to 4 pm and 7 to 9 pm. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, January 16th at 11 am followed by burial at Pequest Union Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Soroptimist International of Hackettstown (PO Box 7004, Hackettstown, NJ 07840) or HCCP (Hackettstown Committee for Crime Prevention), PO Box 695, Hackettstown, NJ 07840. Offer online condolences at www.cochranfuneral.com.
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