Paul Larudee
Paul Larudee (born April 25, 1946) is an Iranian-born American political activist who is a major figure in the pro-Palestinian movement. Based in the San Francisco Bay area, he is involved with the International Solidarity Movement and was a founder of the Free Gaza Movement and the Free Palestine Movement. Early life and education Larudee was born in Iran to an Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary spouse in 1946 and grew up in the American Midwest. He attended Georgetown University from 1970 to 1973 and received a Ph.D. in linguistics. He also graduated from the Niles Bryant School of Piano Technology in 1990. Career Larudee spent 14 years in Arab countries, supervising a Ford Foundation project in Lebanon, working as a Fulbright-Hays lecturer in Lebanon, and a United States government adviser to Saudi Arabia. Larudee has worked in the U.S. and abroad as a piano technician. He is certified as a Registered Piano Technician by the Piano Technicians Guild and has conducted training classes for the Guild and in overseas programs. He is the inventor of the patented Lo-Torq tuning pin, which is used for piano rebuilding. He has also compiled an English-Spanish glossary of piano terminology. He