Agnes, George and Van Krikorian

Description

Krikorian/Kalousdian

Agnes/Aghavni Ann Krikorian (Kalousdian) was born February 8, 1928 to Yessayi/Isaac and Siranoush/Sarah (see Kalousdian/Manassian entry) and grew up at 29 Border Street in Whitinsville with her younger siblings Sebouh and Prudence and later with their cousin Jean Simonian who joined the family from France. In 1956, Agnes married George Krikorian from Worcester (parents Oksen and Zartouhi with siblings Mary, Kenneth, and Sylvia), and the couple lived at the Kalousdian family home at 19 Willow Street until late 1959 when they moved to Framingham, MA and welcomed their only child, Van in February 1960. Throughout, the home in Whitinsville and the church were the center of extended family and community life.
Like all Americans, Agnes and George’s generation was defined by the Great Depression and World War II. George served in the US Army Air Corps in the South Pacific, was decorated for his service, and benefitted from the GI Bill to acquire his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fitchburg State College, then a post graduate degree from Harvard. Like the second generation of other immigrant families, Agnes and George also served as a bridge between the old and new worlds for their parents, linguistically (with Armenian spoken at home), culturally, and other facets of American life. In particular for families which were survivors of the WW I Armenian Genocide, they grew up without aunts and uncles or much in the way of extended families. Their ancestral homes and heritage had been destroyed by the Young Turk/Ottoman government and then the Republic of Turkey. This tightened the natural bonds within the Armenian community, since so many families had that common experience, often uniting among survivors from their former villages or regions. This also created a special bond with siblings, nieces and nephews with Jeffrey, Melanie and Mark Kalousdian who grew up in Whitinsville (children of Sebouh and Margaret) as well as Willard, Marilyn, and Elaine Gould and Tom and Tim Beech of Rhode Island (mother Prudence).
After High School, Agnes graduated from Hill College and like her father and brother would be employed by Whitin Machine Works. She also did work for Pine Grove Cemetery, benefitting from mentorship she received from kind hearted Whitinsville teachers and citizens who helped with lifelong lessons. She and her family also suffered from discrimination in many cases, especially when Armenians were a new immigrant community to the town. Later in life, she would graduate summa cum laude from Framingham State College as a Spanish teacher.
While they lived in Whitinsville, George taught in Shrewsbury and the Massachusetts Youth Service Board (Reform) School in Westborough, MA. His career teaching at Framingham South High School was distinguished with national and state professional recognitions as well as union service.
Virtually every weekend while Yesayi and Siranoush owned the 19 Willow Street home, saw church attendance, Sunday family meals, and time with cousins. Van spent almost the entirety of every summer in Whitinsville. He attended college and law school in Washington, starting in 1977 when he also began working at the Armenian Assembly – then a new organization to find common ground among Armenians and provide professional representation at national government levels. In 1985, Priscilla (Dodakian) of New Britain, CT (also a lawyer) and Van were married in the Soorp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Church of Whitinsville. They have four children; the first three of whom were baptized in the same church. Both Van and Priscilla would also teach law. Van would go on to hold multiple leadership positions in the Armenian Assembly, including Chair, Co-Chair, as well as Chair of the Armenian National Institute (ANI). He authored significant federal legislation (including the Humanitarian Aid Corridors Act and Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act), testified many times before Congress, won the first Federal court decisions reaffirming US policy on the Armenian Genocide as US policy, and was amicus counsel in the Massachusetts federal court cases rejecting attempts to force teaching of Genocide Denial. In 2017, he was awarded Armenia’s Medal/Order of Honor. Their oldest daughter Ani lives with her husband Frank (also both lawyers) and their two children Frankie and Charlotte, Sarah became an English teacher presently in Stamford, CT, Lena earned her master’s from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna and works at the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, and George who is also a lawyer is clerking for a judge in White Plains, NY. Since their grandparents and family are buried there and their beloved Uncle Jeffrey is ever present at his family’s home on Church Street, the bonds to the Whitinsville community stretching over one hundred years are always close.