InternationalGenocide survivor’s wish for his son fulfilled
Harry Kazarosian had a dream
Published: Tuesday March 09, 2010
Paul Kazarosian.
Haverhill, Mass. - As a genocide survivor, he wanted nothing better than an honorable life for his family. More than anything else, he wanted his son to attend Harvard University.
The years following World War 1 were turbulent times for immigrants faced with assimilation. Harry was a barber and each day in his shop, he would babble on about sending his son Paul to the best institution in the land.
They would snicker. Poppycock, they would say. No son of an immigrant could possibly attend Harvard, let alone any institution of higher learning.
"Dream on," they would say.
Although never formally schooled, Harry was well known in the shoe city of Haverhill (MA) as a philosopher and historian. His tiny barber shop was full of men who hungered for exciting discussions on politics, world history, even religion.
After emigrating from Armenia, Harry Kazarosian was told he would be attending school. When he arrived, however, he was immediately sent to work in the Lawrence mills by his brother.
He never went to school. So he read. Book after book.
When he started his family, he vowed that one of his boys would attend Harvard --- his idea of the epitome of education inside this land of opportunity.
He and his wife Veron, a dark-haired beauty from Armenia and another survivor, raised four children. Veron walked the hills of Haverhill four times a day to work as a "fancy stitcher" in the shoe factories, returning home each noon to prepare lunch for her children and Harry.
Veron was math smart and creative. It took her just a few minutes to total up the hundreds of slips she brought home from work each day. At the ripe age of 65, she took up a paint brush and became known as the "Grandma Moses" of Haverhill. Twenty years later, she was exhibiting her artwork and winning prestigious awards.
The year was 1941. Several trips to Cambridge in Harry's 1938 Dodge sealed the image of Harvard firmly in Paul's mind. There was no getting around it.
The only problem was, many of his high school teachers tried hard to dissuade him, thinking the student would make a debacle out of himself. In their minds, Harvard was reserved for the elite.
But there was no disheartening Paul. Apart from his dad's encouragement, he found a friend in his English teacher. She helped him during afternoon school hours and prepared him for his exams. Lo and behold, he passed and was accepted to Harvard.
Word traveled fast throughout the community. "Paul Kazarosian was what? He was accepted where?" That was big news for the local press let alone the Armenian community.
Harry drove his son for an interview. He stopped his car on campus and let Paul out.
"You've come this far, now handle the interview," he told his son, bubbling with pride.
Sitting across from admissions, Paul was asked what his father earned per week. After some hesitation, he replied, "About 20 or 30," meaning dollars of course.
But the men sitting around the table were thinking thousands. After all, Paul thought, his dad was a barber and $30 was good for one week, especially when you paid only $15 a week for a 3-bedroom tenement.
After one academic year at Harvard, Paul did what every patriotic guy did in those days. He left school and volunteered to serve in World War 2. He was chosen for the Army's Specialized Training Program.
In short order, he was sent to Alabama University and then the University of Illinois. Four years later, he returned to Haverhill and Harvard before furthering his education at the prestigious Universite of Paris to study international law and later Boston University where he graduated in 1952.
For 53 years, this son of an immigrant who was given little chance to succeed dedicated his career to law in Haverhill --- one of the finest of his profession and the dean of lawyers during his time. He became a charter member of the Armenian Bar Association and founding member of NAASR, also instrumental in establishing a chair of Armenian Studies at Harvard.
A daughter Marsha joined her dad in the profession. Another daughter Paula Steele is a Biopharmaceutical consultant with Steele Search Personnel in Maine while son Mark is an economics professor at Stonehill College.
Paul's wife Margaret taught music education for many years in Haverhill schools before donating her time to charitable projects like the library. They were married 60 years and enjoyed the presence of six grandsons.
The last five years of Paul Kazarosian's life was maligned with Alzheimer's Disease inside a nursing home before his death at the age of 86.
