Varoujan Koundakjian
Editor’s Note: On July 15, veteran community activist and devoted member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Varoujan Koundakjian passed away. His funeral mass was held on July 21 at St. Mary’s Armenian Church in Glendale. During the mass, Koundakjian’s son, Sevag, eulogized his father. This week, as his family, relatives, friends and the community remember him on the 40th day of his passing, Asbarez is publishing the moving eulogy.
BY SEVAG KOUNDAKJIAN
Every child dreads this day. All my life I’ve thought about it and experienced relief when my father came home from work, from meetings, from Armenia. Today, there is so much emotion to address and so much history to unravel but I choose to focus on one of the many positive attributes of my father that I believe will be his legacy and a mission my sister and I, with our families, will continue to pursue.
My father always said above everything else one must have a vision in life. And for that vision to bear fruit, you must plan, execute and achieve whatever you set your mind to. Perhaps with a bit of irony he would point out how some people with a drawer full of diplomas had very little ambition or vision. This may sound arrogant or vain, but anyone who knows my father would never attribute those words to him. What he was referring to was much more than self-aggrandizing. To start, he was trying to motivate a young man to reach deeper and see further ahead than the here and now.
I believe my father’s vision in life, his sense of duty, his enduring commitment to family and friends, his undying love of country and devotion to the Armenian people all stem from the desire to create and to find beauty in life. Yes, my father had a revolutionary spirit, yes, my father had a generous heart, and yes, my father had the sharpest of minds. But at his core, at the nucleus of his existence, was the soul of an artist, a seeker of beauty and harmony. This was evident in all that he did. Although he did not have an engineering degree, he innovated tools that would be used at the dawn of the microchip industry. My father supervised several construction projects throughout Armenia. He worked tirelessly to perfect architectural blueprints constantly tweaking and improving designs, again in the pursuit of beauty. He provided his resources and talents to build schools, uplift communities and perpetuate our culture. To improve upon and perfect what came before you and to leave a legacy in ones chosen field is a creative endeavor…and to create is to behold and witness beauty.
Finally, in the struggle for justice and recognition of historic wrongs – he gave the full measure of his life to the Armenian cause and people. I understand now what the purpose of all his sacrifices was and is. He wanted to provide access to the world he experienced to all those less fortunate. Because in his childhood he was deprived of common comforts and the opportunity to seek higher education, he strived to provide them to all those in need. My father thought if millions of children around the world have the opportunity to get an education and prosper, then the same fortune should be provided to Armenian children living in border villages. If farmers across the globe tend to their crops without the fear of being in the crosshairs of a sniper, then the Armenian farmer too should not live in such terror. My father’s deepest desires were for the Armenian people, no matter where they lived, to be given all the blessings and opportunities that any other people enjoy, to live in a more perfect union, to be able to seek out the beauty we all desire. He was driven by this vision all his life. He planned it, executed it and achieved it.
Lessons Passed On by Varoujan
During a memorial luncheon held following Varoujan Koundakjian’s funeral on July 21 at Brandview Collection in Glendale, his daughter-in-law, Yerado Abrahamian recounted the lessons passed on by Varoujan that will fill their family for generations to come. We share her moving tribute this week as we remember Varoujan Koundakjian.
My name is Yerado. I am Sevag’s wife and Kami’s mother.
Even though my father-in-law often referred to me as Ungerouhi, I did not know him in that capacity. I did not know Unger Varouj. I knew him simply as “dadâ€
