Anooshavan “Flash” Kurkjian
By John Cronin
Boston Herald, MA
Sept 2 2004
Anooshavan “Flash” Kurkjian, of Watertown and Manomet, a noted
Boston artist, died Tuesday at Mount Auburn hospital after a brief
illness.
Born in Kigi, in eastern Turkey, he was forced to flee in 1915
during the Armenian genocide. Only he, his mother and an aunt
successfuly escaped the pogroms when they arrived in Syria.
In the 1920s, his family settled in Watertown, where they
settled among what is still a very large Armenian-American community.
After his marriage, he and his wife settled in Boston’s South End,
then Dorchester and lastly Watertown.
While attending Watertown High School, he excelled in tennis and
basketball and earned the nickname “Flash” from his teammates. His
rather long and difficult to pronounce – at least to non-Armenians –
first name lead to his earning nicknames throughout his life, which
was source of unending humor.
Graduating from Watertown High, he enrolled in the Vesper George
Art School and went on to become a comercial artist. He maintained an
art studio in Boston’s Little Building for more than 35 years.
In a period when photography was still in the black and white
era, he was noted for his ability to “colorize” photos of bridal
and other special occcasion photos for such photography studios as
Ciro’s.
Mr. Kurkjian was also a distinguished painter and portrait
artist. His portrait of Pope John Paul II graced the cover of the
then Boston Herald American Sunday magazine when the pontiff visited
Boston in 1979.
His portraits can be found in many homes and businesses in the
Boston area. Another portrait, commissioned by the then Attorney
General Scott Harshberger, of slain state prosecutor Paul McLaughlin
hangs in the Attorney General’s office.
An avid athlete, Mr. Kurkjian was a long-time member of the
Boston Young Mens’ Christian Union. An even more avid handball
player, he often engaged in matches with many prominent Bostonians.
They included former Attorney General Francis Bellotti, real estate
developer Thomas Flatley and former Globe and Herald columnist, Dave
Farrell. At BYMCU he was called “George.”
In the early 1990s, he traveled to his birthplace, Kigi, with
his son, Stephen Kurkjian, an editor/reporter with the Boston Globe.
The trip and his reminiscences appeared in an article entitled
“Roots of Sorrow” in the Globe Sunday magazine.
Mr Kurkjian is survived by his wife of 66 years, Rosella, a
former employee in the Boston Herald library, and three children,
Karolyn Kurkjian-Jones of Boston, Stephen of Boston and Elizabeth
Kurkjian-Henry of Winchester. He is also survied by his sister, Mae
Avakian of Watertown and six grandchildren.
Visiting hours will be held tomorrow from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at
Aram Bedrosian Funeral Home, Watertown. Funeral services will be held
at St. James Armenian Church, Watertown, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Burial will be in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.
Funeral arrangements by Bedrosian Funeral Home, Watertown.