Kudos and Accolades to Dr. George Apelian

 Vahe H. Apelian

 

Dr. George Apelian receiving his Kessab Man of the Year recognition

On this past Sunday, January 14, 2023, the members of Kessab Educational Association of Los Angeles, had their first annual meeting in their center, in Reseda, and honored Dr. George Apelian and bestowed upon him the Kessab Man of the Year recognition. It is customary that KEA of LA recognizes each year a fellow Kessabtsi as the person of the year. This year, the board recognized Dr. George Apelian as the Man of the Year.

Naturally the Kessabtsis congratulated George for this well-deserved recognition.  Many congratulatory comments were made on the Facebook and will be made. Among the many congratulatory comments that were made in the Facebook regarding this well-deserved recognition, I singled out the comment of Ara Apelian, MD. The two are of the same age and had a shared experiences as teenagers in their formative years when they came from Kessab and became boarded in the Armenian Evangelical Community’s Chanits center, as they studied In the Armenian Evangelical College along with Stepan Apelian, Ara’s brother, Rev. Soghomon Kilaghbian, pastor Antranig Injejikian in Australia. Ara Apelian wrote:

“Beautiful and worthy of applause

Dr George Apelian is a true hero in every sense of the word.

His generosity, kindness, resilience and love for Kessab/Keorkune and the annual Masara festival at his house to celebrate the history, the culture and the spirit of community as awareness of the plight of Kessab after the brutal invasion by the terrorists and yet the miracle of survival and endurance in face of adversity.

Who else would represent that spirit of overcoming adversity better than my dear childhood friend, Dr George Apelian

God’s blessings to you, my friend.”

Indeed so, George’s family members, friends, and fellow Kessabtsis know that life challenged and tested George. But he bore them all with grace and kept his spirit of generosity, kindness, resilience, hospitality and love especially for his fellow Kessabtsis and Keorkunetsis. 

My younger brother Garo and George are contemporaries. In 1988, my brother was diagnosed with leukemia and was undergoing treatment, part of which entailed the inordinately terrible state when he was intubated. His arms and legs were restricted, tied to the frame of the bed on which he was laying, and a machine pumped air into his lungs through a tube inserteted in his trachea.. Once freed, he would later tell us that he had to synchronize his regular breathing pattern along consistency of the machine pumping air and God forbit if that synch got disturbed.  It was George who stood by him in the room, next to his bed for hours on end, holding Garo’s hands tied to the bed, and continued encouraging him to bear it for it will be soon over. And it was George who gave a moving eulogy at Garo’s funeral.

No.1 our paternal ancestral house, No. 2 Pahsa's - Apelian-Konyalian house,
No. 3 Zarouhi, Missak, Vatche, George Apelian paternal house.

George is younger than I by a few years, enough to make his coming onto this earth a memorable experience for me and for my cotemporaries in Keorkune. I remember it as if it was yesterday when I, with a few of others of my age, were sitting on the low partition around Pasha;s, - the Apelian, Konyalian - house, the very first house that was built with cement in Keurkune, facing George’s paternal house across the dirt road. There was a commotion in the village. Women hurriedly were entering and moving out of their house. My grandmother Sara, the unschooled and illiterate but the established and reputable health custodian of the village, was in the house and we were told to look up to the roof because from the chimney on the roof, a baby will be coming into the house. That is how we welcomed George to this earth. 

From there George literary travelled far. After finishing Keorkune’s school, he attended school in Kessab. “Neither snow nor rain, nor heat. nor gloom” deterred him and his contemporaries walking from Keourkune to their school in Kessab every day.

From Kessab, George, my paternal cousins Ara, Stepan, Soghomon, Antranig, came to Beirut as boarding students in the Armenian Evangelical Chanits center, as noted, and attended the Armenian Evangelical College in Beirut. From there George came to the. United States to join his brothers Missak, Vatche and sister Zarouhi.  From Los Angeles, George attended a Chicago dental school. After graduation he moved back to Los Angeles, did specialty training and set up his dental practice, always rendering care to those in need, especially visitors from Kessab and Armenia. He also set up a dental clinic in Armenia servicing the needy and named it after his first-born son who is severely autistic.

Almost two decades ago, George initiated a yearly tradition of inviting his fellow Kessabtsis and friends to his Thousand Oaks hill top house for masara, which for Kessabtsis is the most festive occasion when grape molasses and “prpoor”, grape molasses froth, is savored. Masara is rooted in Kessab culture. Even Miss Effie Chambers, the beloved American missionary among the Kessabtsis, noted in a letter, dated October 20, 1906, to the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM), on whose behalf she was doing mission work, that  “The first part of the (school) term is greatly interrupted by gathering in the vineyard products and the making of molasses, which is a sort of general good time for everybody.” She was alluding to masara, for which George had containers fabricated and make special provision for heating the grape juice for making the grape molasses.

I also extend my heart felt congratulations to his wife Victorya, to his sons George Jr., Peter and Nareg, his brother Missak, his sister Zarouhi and his nieces and nephews, for this well-deserved recognition and wish George a long and a healthy life. 

George Apelian at Keurkune spring.