Henry S. Kazan Endows $300,000 For New CSUF Professorship

In a moving press conference on April 8, California State University, Fresno President, Dr. John Welty, formally announced the gift of $300,000 made by Victoria and Henry Kazan of Juno Beach, Florida for the establishment of the Henry S. Khanzadian Kazan Professorship in Modern Armenian and Immigration History. The Kazans, long time residents of Long Island, were present with members of their family from New York City, Wichita, and Fresno.

The Kazan Professorship is the second endowed position in the Armenian Studies Program. Dr. Dickran Kouymjian, Director of the Program, has occupied the Haig & Isabel Berberian Professorship in Armenian Studies since 1989. Along with Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Lecturer in Armenian Studies, it will create the first Armenian studies program in America with three fulltime specialists.

At the ceremony, President Welty emphasized the unique nature of the gift which creates the first endowed joint professorship on campus. The future incumbent, to be chosen after an international search, will be appointed in both the History Department, School of Social Sciences, and Armenian Studies, School of Arts and Humanities. Provost and Academic Vice-President Alex Gonzalez, Dean of Social Sciences Peter Klassen, and Dean of Arts & Humanities, Luis Costa, also emphasized the cooperation of the two Schools in fulfilling the Kazan endowment.

Prof. Kouymjian introduced the honored guests with these words:
“Victoria and Henry Kazan met in New York and married there even though both are from Sebastia, the modern city of Sivas, in east central Turkey. They were among the rare Armenians who had left the Ottoman Turkish Empire before 1915 and thereby survived the Genocide. Henry Kazan was from the village of Zara, about 30 miles east of Sebastia. At age eight, he and his mother were sent to America by a grandfather who booked passage in steerage. He just missed the annihilation of the Armenians. Everyone left in Zara was killed; there were no survivors.

“Growing up as an immigrant boy in the Armenian ghetto of Manhattan’s east side, Henry Kazan quickly mastered English and American ways and picked up “street smarts” swiftly. He was an outstanding students, but had to stop going to day school in order to support the family. He continued his studies at night, finishing high school and then enrolling at New York University and completing a BA in History entirely through night school courses. He didn’t stop there, earning his law degrees, both LLB and JD, again at night, at St. John’s University, after which he was admitted to the New York Bar.

“After serving in the US Army during World War II, he worked in the coal mining business in Pennsylvania and then landed the final job of his career with the NuTone Company, maker of electrical household products and lighting fixtures. Through tenacity and hard work, he eventually became a regional sales director and an important NuTone stockholder.

“Victoria and Henry Kazan are “hooked” on higher education. Three of their nieces and nephews, who they treat as their own children, are academics in the humanities and social sciences. Henry Kazan would have been a history professor if he had had a choice. Perhaps this helps explain why the Kazans feel so strongly about endowing a professorship in Armenian, immigration, and Genocide history. Henry Kazan could think of no better way to invest some of his and Victoria Kazan’s money than in a permanent endowment for teaching and research in precisely those subjects which have shaped their lives for the past eight decades. Fresno State is fortunate that the Kazans’ horizons reached 3000 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean.”

Mr. Kazan then explained why he and his wife came so far to enhance Armenian Studies at Frsno State. “The reason I am here is simple,” he said, addressing the press and television, “Fresno State has the best and most active Armenian studies program in the country. I was approached by my alma mater New York University, but they could not offer me what I wanted. . . . For the last several years, I have been trying to combat the Turkish government’s saying that there was no genocide. I know there was one. I escaped it by 15 months.”

Kazan added, “The endowed professorship is my way of helping ensure that the Genocide is clearly understood and never forgotten. It’s my way of honoring those who did not survive.”
In the evening there was a special reception in the Renaissance Room hosted by President Welty and attended by the University administration, development officers, deans, faculty from History, Armenian Studies, members of the Armenian Studies Advisory Board, and friends of the Armenian Studies Program.

Among the family members present for the day long festivities were Mr. Kazan’s sister Elizabeth Kazanjian of New York, Mrs. Kazan’s nephew, Dr. Harold Aram Veeser, Associate Professor of English at Wichita State University, Mr. Kazan’s niece, Iris Kassabian of New York, and his great niece, Dr. Anahid Kassabian, Lecturer in Women’s Studies at Fresno State, as well as Prof. Kassabian’s husband, Dr. Leo Svensen, a physicists and computer specialist, and their daughter Maral.

In thanking Victoria and Henry Kazan for their gift to the university and its Armenian Program, Dr. Kouymjian said, “Henry and Victoria Kazan’s foresight has given the CSUF Armenian Studies Program a way of forging permanent bounds with the History Department, ensuring a wider contact between the two faculties and broader horizons for our students. God Bless You, Victoria and Henry.”