Richard Kloian, 73, pioneering Armenian Genocide educator, passes away

by Lou Ann Matossian

Published: Wednesday May 05, 2010

Richard Kloian holding an earlier edition of his publication. Courtesy photo

Minneapolis - One Armenian scholar called him "a national treasure," others "an indispensable bridge" between genocide researchers, historians, educators, and the public. The name of Richard Diran Kloian, 73, who passed away on May 1 of complications from a brain stem stroke, was synonymous with that of the Richmond, Calif.-based Armenian Genocide Resource Center.

Richard Kloian and the AGRC were probably best known for The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts from the American Press, 1915-1922, a landmark 1985 collection of articles reproduced from the New York Times and other sources. Painstakingly compiled from microfilm in the years before digitization and the Internet made historic newspaper stories widely accessible, the coverage of what America's newspaper of record had once called "systematic race extermination" made a powerful impact just as Ankara's denial campaign was shifting into high gear. Originally published in 1980 and 1981 as Armenian Genocide: First 20th Century Holocaust, subsequent editions through 2007 were expanded to cover the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s and the Adana massacre of 1909.

An amateur in the highest sense of the word, Richard devoted himself to public education about this crime against humanity, drawing on the social acumen and networking experiences of a rich and varied life. The Detroit native, born March 7, 1937, studied science in high school and English and French in college, also developing interests in astronomy, photography, and music. A retail manager during the work week and an accomplished Latin percussionist on the weekends, he was playing at the Puerto Rican Club in Detroit when he met his future wife Antonia, a beautician and former nun to whom he was married more than 40 years.

Richard's interest in the Genocide was inspired by his grandmother, Khanum Palootzian, whose harrowing survival story he recorded in 1972, including eyewitness accounts from his father Zakaria and uncle Mesrob of Grasse, France. Realizing the effectiveness of personal narratives as a teaching tool, he would later encourage others to send family memoirs to Armenian Studies centers where the stories could be preserved and shared.

After moving to California, Richard spent his nights and weekends researching the Armenian Genocide at the University of California and compiling historic news accounts. Eager to know more, he returned to college full time, graduating in 1993 with associate of arts degrees in English, sociology, history, political science, and law. Four years later, in response to a growing demand for materials on the Genocide for classroom use, Richard established the Armenian Genocide Resource Center and funded it out of his Social Security benefits.

To facilitate the teaching of the Armenian Genocide, Richard compiled hundreds of articles from scholarly journals and published scores of booklets and readers. He compiled, edited, produced, and distributed a 400-page resource manual of maps, Web sites, photographs, news reports, primary-source documents, scholarly articles on the Genocide and its denial, and U.S. state-level curricula that mandated teaching about the Armenian Genocide.

Richard was instrumental in making the Genocide part of the secondary-school curriculum in many parts of the country and was sought after for his expertise. In 2003, for example, he and representatives of four Armenian organizations were invited to give expert testimony before the California State Assembly Committee on Education in support of a genocide education bill.

As a contributor to National Public Radio, he recorded and edited important lectures related to the Genocide and made them available as part of the AGRC Educational Audio Series. He also produced and distributed a variety of Genocide-related videos, including, in 2009, a restored and edited 24-minute segment of the 1919 silent motion picture Ravished Armenia.

"I would like to see funded and staffed resource centers that can take on this role, work with their communities, and do outreach," Richard told the Armenian Reporter in 2007. "We need to support our existing research centers as well, like Zoryan and others. Much work needs to be done but I believe we have the talent and the will, the vision and dedication to do it."

Richard served on the advisory board of The Genocide Education Project (genocideeducation.org), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that assists educators in teaching about human rights and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide. In 2002 he was honored by the San Francisco Bay Area Armenian National Committee as a "Local Hero" for his dedication to the study of the Armenian Genocide.

Richard Kloian is survived by his widow Antonia; brothers Arnold, Bearnard, Michael, and Scott; and several nieces and nephews. The funeral services will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 6, at Smith & Witter Funeral Home, 5145 Sobrante Ave., El Sobrante, Calif., (510) 758-5466. He will be buried at Rolling Hills Memorial Park, 4100 Hilltop Dr., El Sobrante, Calif., (510) 223-6161.

Editor's Note: Adapted from a profile by Tania Ketenjian reproduced in full below.

A man's work, a nation's heritage

by Tania Ketenjian from the Armenian Reporter, May 26, 2007. , Iss. 13; pg. C4, 5 pgs 

One Armenian scholar has called him "a national treasure," others "an indispensable bridge" between genocide scholars, historians, educators, and the public. Richard Kloian. It's not a name with which many of us in the Armenian community are intimately familiar - but we should be, we must be, because Richard Kloian has dedicated his life to having the Armenian voice heard.