With deep sorrow, the Eastern Diocese mourns the passing of Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian, America’s pre-eminent scholar of Armenian studies, who passed away on July 10, in California. He was 90.
In an academic career spanning some 60 years, Professor Hovannisian was internationally acknowledged as one of the most distinguished, prolific, and honored figures in his field. As the first holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, and later as Professor Emeritus of History, Hovannisian was the author or editor of 32 books, including multiple volumes on the Armenian Genocide and on the first Republic of Armenia.
He was a founder of the Society of Armenian Studies, a member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, and a Guggenheim Fellow. But Dr. Hovannisian was above all a teacher who, through several generations of students, bequeathed many of the leading academics to the field of Armenian studies.
Dr. Hovannisian was the son of Genocide survivors, and with his dear wife of half a century, Vartiter, he raised a family whose children and grandchildren have extended the Hovannisian legacy of advocacy and service into the realm of the arts and politics. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones at this time.
During the Armenian Genocide Centennial year in 2015, staff of the Eastern Diocese’s Communications department had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Hovannisian for a film project sponsored by our Wynnewood, PA, parish. In the resulting video, titled From Horror to Hope, Dr. Hovannisian gives a gripping, brief account of the origins of the Genocide, in which his profound powers as a teacher and scholar are on full display.
View the video by clicking here.
An extended note on Dr. Hovannisian’s life and career appears below.
Richard Hovannisian’s name will surely be honored and blessed by the Armenian people hereafter. May our risen Lord Jesus remember him at the coming of His kingdom.
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Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian (1932-2023)
Richard Hovannisian was the child of Genocide survivors. His father, Kaspar Gavroian, was born in the village of Bazmashen near Kharpert in 1901. Unlike others, he survived the Genocide and arrived in the U.S. He changed his last name from Gavroian to Hovannisian after his father Hovannes. In 1928 Kaspar married Siroon Nalbandian, another child of Genocide survivors. They had four sons: John, Ralph, Richard, and Vernon. Richard was born in Tulare, California, on November 9, 1932. Being the son of Genocide survivors played an important role in his academic path.
In 1957, he married Dr. Vartiter Kotcholosian in Fresno and had four children: Raffi, Armen, Ani, and Garo. Raffi would become the first Minister of Foreign Affairs (1991-1992) of the modern Republic of Armenia.
Hovannisian began his academic life in 1954 by earning a B.A. in History, followed by an M.A. in History from the University of California, Berkley. In 1966, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His dissertation was published in 1967 under the title Armenia on the Road to Independence; it was the precursor to his four-volume magnum opus, The Republic of Armenia. Hovannisian played an important role in establishing the teaching of Armenian history at UCLA. In 1987, he became the first holder of the Armenian Education Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, which after his retirement was named in his honor as the Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, with Prof. Sebouh Aslanian as its first incumbent.
Hovannisian was a Guggenheim Fellow and received numerous prestigious national and international awards for his service to the field and civic activities. He served on the Board of Directors of multiple national and international educational institutions and was a member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. After finishing his four-volume The Republic of Armenia, he dedicated his research and career to battling the denial of Armenian Genocide, resurrecting the history of Armenian towns and villages of the Armenian Provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and writing textbooks on modern Armenian history. Although not a scholar of Armenian Genocide, he has contributed more to the discipline than many others in the field. He edited multiple volumes on different facets of the Armenian Genocide, including historical, literary, and artistic perspectives. Hovannisian also spearheaded a monumental project to preserve the eyewitness accounts of the Armenian Genocide survivors.
In the 1970s, he launched the “Armenian Genocide Oral History Project.” He and his students interviewed more than 1,000 Armenian Genocide survivors in California. In 2018, Hovannisian donated the collection to the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive to be available to scholars around the world. He single-handedly edited and published 15 volumes with Mazda Press as part of the UCLA Armenian History & Culture Series. The 15 volumes covered the history of Armenians in Van/Vaspourakan, Cilicia (with Simon Payaslian), Sivas/Sepastia, Trebizond/Trabzon, Baghesh/Bitlis, Taron/Mush, Smyrna/Izmir, Kesaria/Kayseri and Cappadocia among other places. The final book in the series, The Armenians of Persia/Iran, was published in 2022. Hovannisian also edited the two-volume The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, considered a classic Armenian history textbook.
Hovannisian came from a generation that fought against the stifling of Armenian voices within the fields of Middle Eastern and Ottoman Studies, which had relegated Armenian Studies to second-class status. He fought for the relevance of Armenian Studies within these fields and tirelessly fought against the efforts to marginalize Armenian issues and to deny the Armenian Genocide.
Besides his contribution to the field, Hovannisian also mentored and educated multiple generations of scholars and thousands of students. He was a strict mentor who demanded that his students work to reach their full potential. He wanted to make sure that they would survive and thrive in the tough terrain of the academic job market.
In his lifetime, Hovannisian was especially influenced by two people: his wife Vartiter and Simon Vratsian (the last Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia). Vartiter was his life’s partner for more than half a century. Her dedication to Richard and the field of Armenian Studies played an important role in shaping who Richard became. Vartiter was an intellectual companion who read and reviewed every piece that he wrote. She was also a constant presence at every conference he planned or attended. In the early 1950s, Vratsian, the author of a major book on the First Republic, became Hovannisian’s mentor when he studied Armenian language at the Hamazkayin Nishan Palanjian Jemaran in Beirut, Lebanon. This influence led Hovannisian to write the first academic work on the First Republic of Armenia and created the first step for his academic career.
In 1974, Hovannisian along with Dickran Kouymjian, Nina Garsoïan, Avedis Sanjian, and Robert Thomson spearheaded the project to establish a Society for Armenian Studies (SAS).
Considered as the pillars of Armenian Studies, the main objective of this group was the development of Armenian Studies as an academic discipline. With access to very limited resources, this group of scholars was able to establish the foundations of a Society that would play a dominant role in developing Armenian Studies in North America and beyond. From a handful of chairs and programs that supported the initiative at the time, today Armenian Studies as a discipline has flourished in the United States with more than thirteen chairs and programs providing their unconditional support to the Society. Hovannisian was the president of SAS for three terms (1977, 1991-1992, 2006-2009). During his tenure the Society flourished and was able to achieve major accomplishments in the field.
In 2019, the Society for Armenian Studies awarded Hovannisian with the SAS Life Time Achievement Award in recognition and appreciation for his outstanding service and contribution to the field of Armenian Studies.
The funeral service for Dr. Hovannisian took place on Saturday, July 22, 2023, at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Fresno, CA. Presiding was Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America.
Memorial donations be made to: Orran (a center for underprivileged children in Armenia), c/o 2217 Observatory Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027; and the Richard G. Hovannisian Scholarship Fund, Holy Martyrs Ferrahian High School, c/o 101 Groverton Pl., Los Angeles, CA.