One nation across all divides

Published: Saturday July 14, 2007

The earthly remains of Alex and Marie Manoogian were moved this week from Detroit to Armenia so that they may be reinterred at Holy Etchmiadzin next week.

The generosity of the Manoogians is legendary. The sheer amount of money they donated over their lifetimes is but one indication of their charity. The widely cited estimate is $90 million; this is probably an understatement because it adds sums from different periods; a million 1960 dollars are the equivalent of well over six million 2007 dollars.

But numbers tell only part of the story. It is an important story that remains very relevant today.

Many of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide identified with the village, town, or region from which they and their families were driven. They formed compatriotic societies that brought the survivors back together. Eventually, many of these societies compiled their local histories, traditions, and remembrances into thick volumes that are the jewels of our collective memory.

The vision of Alex and Marie Manoogian, however, was pan-Armenian. They saw one nation across all divides. In his organizational leadership and in his charitable giving, Alex Manoogian, a native of Smyrna, saw Armenians from Adana or Akhalkalaki, from Karabakh or Kharpert, from Zeitun or Zangezur as part of one great Armenian nation. Nor did it matter to him where these Armenians now lived: across the globe, Armenians were one nation, indivisible.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union, founded one hundred years ago by another great Armenian, Boghos Nubar, became the perfect venue for Alex Manoogian's visionary leadership. And the evidence is everywhere to be seen: the Alex and Marie Manoogian School in Southfield, Mich.; the Marie Manoogian Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Alex Manoogian School in Montevideo, Uruguay; the Marie Manoogian School in Los Angeles, Calif.; the Alex Manoogian School in Montreal; the Alex Manoogian Center in Beirut, Lebanon; the Alex Manoogian Center in Zahleh, Lebanon; the Marie Manoogian School in Tehran, Iran - all under the auspices of the AGBU.

Then there is the Armenian Community Center in Almelo, Holland; the Alex and Marie Manoogian Seminary in Jerusalem; the Alex and Marie Manoogian Museum in Etchmiadzin; the Alex and Marie Manoogian School in Boca Raton, Fla., and the the Alex and Marie Manoogian Cultural Center in Miami.

Tens of thousands of Armenian children and young adults, most with no ties with or knowledge of the AGBU, were educated in these schools - and others supported by the AGBU or by the Manoogians directly - and are educated there today.

The Manoogians' commitment to raising generations of Armenians across all boundaries went beyond their enormous role in the AGBU. At the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, there's the Alex Manoogian chair in Modern Armenian History and the Marie Manoogian chair in Modern Armenian Language and Literature. The Manoogians also contributed substantially to Armenian studies programs and chairs at UCLA, Columbia University in New York, New York University, the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, the University of Leiden, Holland, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Southern California, and Bentley College in Waltham, Mass.
They also established the AGBU Alex and Marie Manoogian Cultural Fund in 1968. It has supported the publication and translation of many scholarly and literary works, cultural activities, and has provided assistance to needy Armenian intellectuals and educators throughout the world.

The Manoogians supported the church. They gave to Holy Etchmiadzin; they gave to the Saint Vartan Cathedral and to Diocesan Endowment Fund in New York; they gave to Saint John's Armenian Church and cultural complex in Southfield, Mich. They also gave to the Mekhitarist Monasteries in Vienna and Venice.

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The Manoogian legacy continues through a healthy and dynamic AGBU, through the ongoing work of their foundations, through the continued operation of the institutions they endowed, and through their family: their daughter Louise and their son Richard. In a larger sense, their legacy continues through the survival and dynamism of the Armenian nation.

Louise Manoogian Simone navigated the formidable organization that is the AGBU in the crucial years after the earthquake in Armenia. Even as the organization responded in a fulsome manner to the humanitarian needs that emerged from the earthquake and the economic collapse of the early years of Armenian independence, Ms. Manoogian Simone had the vision to endow the American University of Armenia. Beyond education, the AGBU addressed spiritual needs through the church and by investing in Armenia's cultural life. Meanwhile, the AGBU continued to address the needs of the diaspora.

Although Ms. Simone in 2002 relinquished many of her duties at the AGBU, she continues to be an active supporter and participant in building the future of the Armenian nation.

Alex and Marie Manoogian's life's work, their vision, and their leadership have inspired many others to follow in their footsteps to the best of their abilities. Not least among them is the next generation of Manoogians, Ms. Simone's grown children.

In 1996, when Alex Manoogian died, the Catholicos of All Armenians flew to Detroit to officiate at his funeral. Now the remains of the Manoogians are in Armenia. They will lie in state at the Monastery of Saint Gayane until July 17, after which they will be reinterred on the hallowed grounds of Holy Etchmiadzin, in the shadows of the Mother Cathedral, and in sight of the museum they sponsored.

May they rest in peace in the soil they tilled throughout their lives.