Dr. Norman Solhkhah was born and raised near Lake Urmia, Iran in 1929.  He was the 5^th of 7 children born to Assyrian parents -- Anna and Avrahim. 

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"Central Photo studio, Tsaritsin city, Russia".

After graduating high school, he served in the Iranian army.  He left Iran at the age of 20 and began working throughout the Middle East as a survey engineer for oil companies, including British Petroleum. 

At 22, he left Kuwait and began traveling the world.  After brief travels in Europe, Dr. Solhkhah crossed the Atlantic and went to Argentina and Brazil. 

He spent several years there, working with a European consortium to gather dangerous and rare animals for display in various European zoos. 

In 1959, Dr. Solhkhah immigrated to the United States and came to Chicago under a student visa.  He began his studies here, while working full time in various trades.  Two of his brothers had earlier immigrated to the US and were living in Chicago.  While engaging in his studies, he married and began a family. His wife, Sylvia, was an educator. His first son, Ramon, was born in 1968, and Cyrus followed in 1970.  Ramon is a Physician and Professor at New York University in Manhattan and Cyrus is a Physician and Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Between 1960 and 1972, Dr. Solhkhah earned two Bachelor’s Degrees (in Psychology and Bio-engineering), a Master’s Degree in Child Psychology and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology, all at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  After obtaining his doctoral degree he worked at the University of Illinois for five years, in the Department of Surgery.  He also worked for the State of Illinois Department of Corrections for five years.  In the early 1970’s a huge influx of Assyrian refugees came to Chicago, and Dr. Solhkhah was involved in providing psychological services, and organizing vocational and educational placement.  In addition, he coordinated a team of medical professionals to provide the refugees with medical services.
 

He began his own private practice in the late 1970’s.  During that time, and into the early 1980’s, Dr. Solhkhah was instrumental in helping Assyrian children obtain bilingual educational services with the Chicago Board of Education.  In the 1980’s Dr. Solhkhah opened and operated several local business ventures, and began to invest in commercial real estate.  He retired from psychology in the late 1980’s and began to devote his time to his real estate investments and other business interests.  He currently oversees his financial investments consisting of commercial real estate.

In 1995, Dr. Solhkhah went to Helsinki, Finland.  He attended a conference of archaeologists and Assyriologists, presenting their work on the history of Assyrian people.  It was the start of what has become his proudest work.  He became actively involved with those scholars and has been a patron to their research.  Dr. Solhkhah is the founder of the Mesopotamia Museum of Chicago, a collection of ancient artifacts.  He has also sponsored lectures at the Assyrian American National Federation Annual Convention from leading Assyriologists.  In October of 2000, Dr. Solhkhah and the Mesopotamia Museum will also be sponsoring the MELAMMU Symposium.  An annual international conference usually held in Europe, Dr. Solhkhah went to great lengths to ensure the millennial conference would be held in the United States.

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