Robert Polhill; Held Hostage for 3 Years in Mideast

Robert Polhill, an American professor at Beirut University College who was held hostage in the Middle East for 39 months, died Thursday at Georgetown University of complications from throat cancer. He was 65.

Polhill, a native of New York who was recently living in Arlington, Va., was working as an assistant professor of business when he and three other faculty members were seized Jan. 24, 1987, by gunmen.

The kidnappings represented the largest single abduction of Americans in a series of moves against foreigners by pro-Muslim militias in the Lebanese capital.

During most of his time in isolation, Polhill was chained in windowless rooms, receiving only occasional visits from doctors to treat his diabetes. He had little more than his imagination to break the monotony. He later said he fantasized about learning to play 37 instruments and leading a band.

He said that maintaining a sense of humor was also important to his survival. He recalled a time when his captors pointed their guns at his temple while another militiaman took a picture of him.

“The first time he took the picture, I had this big grin on my face. . . . The guy was really mad at me,” Polhill later said. “So he said, ‘Look sad! Look sad!’ I said I don’t know how to look sad. . . . I was doing my best not to laugh.”

He was released in 1990, as part of an effort to improve relations between Iran and the United States after the Iran-Contra scandal.

Appearing frail, hunched and gaunt, he was flown to an air base in Frankfurt, Germany, where tests showed he had cancer of the larynx.

Despite his ordeal, he always remained close to Lebanon and its people. He said he was able to distinguish between those who held him captive and “the Lebanese people in general.”

He is survived by his wife, Ferial Polhill, two sons and his mother.