Lest We Forget: Anahid Tootikian Meymarian

By Vahe H. Apelian

Anahid Tootikian Meymarian was born on November 10, 1937 in Ekizolukh, one of the villages that make up greater Kessab. She was the daughter of George and Julia Tootikian. She had two brothers, Hagop and Levon who and a sister Nvart (deceased).

She received her primary and secondary education in the Armenian Evangelical College of Beirut. For a brief period, she attended the Near East School of Theology , Haigazian College and Beirut College for Women.

She emigrated to the United States of America in 1962. In 1964 she graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey with a Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A.) in literature and psychology. In 1967 she received her Master of Arts (M.A.) degree from California State University of Northridge, CSUN, majoring in pedagogy and educational psychology and received her teaching credentials.

In 1968 she married Puzant Meymarian, who along with his trade is an accomplished sculpture. They are blessed with three children Garine, Talin and Vicken and six grandchildren.

Holy Martyrs Ferrahian Armenian School, first Armenian day school in the U.S, was founded in 1964.  Anahid started teaching there from 1965 and on for the next 25 years, until 1989. She was thus one of the first full time teachers of the school. She taught Armenian language, history and literature from 3^rd to 12^th grades. She is the author of five notebooks of Armenian calligraphy and became its resident historian having affiliated with it since get go.  She wrote a brief history of the school celebrating the 40^th anniversary of its foundation. She instilled in her students an Armenian patriotic fervor and remained liked by them.  

From 1965 and onward Anahid Meymarian remained an active member and supporter of the Kessab Educational Association of Los Angeles. From 1971 to 1988 she taught Armenian history and literature to the young campers in Camp Kessab which was run by the Kessab Educational Association of  Los Angeles.

In 1973 Anahid joined the ranks of the Armenian Relief  Society. For the next 47 years she became an active member of the organization serving both in local chapter committee as well as in the  regional central committee. In 2010,  she researched and posted in Armenian journals a brief history of Armenian Relief Society’s activities during the past 100 years marking the centennial of the Society.

From 1987 and on she contributed  articles to the “Asbarez” Daily. 

In 2005 she published an anthology of her articles in a book titled “My Holy Fatherland” (Im Sourp Hayrenik - Իմ Սուրբ Հայրենիք).

In 2008 she published her impressions of her visit of the Armenian Cilicia and Western Armenia in a book titled “The Stones Cry Out” (Karereh Gaghagagen-Քարերը Կաղակակեն).

In 2010 Catholicos Aram I pinned upon her the Saint Mesrob Mashdots medal accompanied by an ecclesiastical decree.

Her love of the Armenian language and culture was unbound. She devoted most of her productive adult life educating succeeding generations. 

She succumbed to her lingering illness on April 14, 2019 in her house while under care of her family members and serendipitously on the very same day her long time colleague and the founding principal of the Ferrahian Armenian School, Gabriel Injejikian, passed away as well, marking the closure of an remarkable era in life of the Armenian American Community that was marked by a spree of founding Armenian day schools.

Anahid was a family friend and a fellow Kessabtsi. My mother and she shared common values as lifelong teachers of Armenian language, history and literature. Both were bestowed with St. Mesrob Mashdots ecclesiastical decree. Both were authors. Anahid had a vast collection of Armenian books which graced their house along with her husband Puzant’s masterful artistry making their house, on a hilltop in Tarzana, a cultural place to be I visited with my mother whenever I was in Los Angeles visiting my parents. 

In 2015 I translated her depiction of the last months of Aurora Mardigian-Mardiganian. Keghart.com published it on March 7, 2015. Subsequently I also posted it in my blog.  We owe to her and to her husband’s vigilance the story of the demise of Aurora, the orphaned genocide survivor who brought the horror of the genocide on the silver screen for countless to view. 

I would like to close this obituary with one of my mother’s favorite quote, as Anahid Tootikian Meymarian also fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). 

May she rest in peace.

Source: Kessabtis Yearbook 2020, 60^th Edition, pages: 234-236