Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918 Fax: 818.246.7353
PRES S RELEASE
: August 9, 2007
Contact: Haig Hovsepian
Tel: (818) 500-1918
Hacob Shirvanian To Be Honored At ANC-Western Region Banquet
Los Angeles, CA – Longtime community activist and Armenian National
Committee supporter Hacob Shirvanian will be honored with the ANC Legacy
Award at the organization’s banquet this fall. The honor is among the
organization’s highest awards and is being granted to Shirvanian for his
decades of support for the ANC. The banquet, which is set to be a sold out
event, will be held on September 30th at the Universal Sheraton in Los
Angeles.
"We are proud to be honoring Hacob Shirvanian," remarked ANC-Western Region
Chairman Raffi Hamparian. "As someone who spent over three decades on a
number of prestigious state boards, Hacob has shown, by example, that
Armenian Americans need to be engaged in politics. We are pleased that
Hacob, who has supported the ANC’s work and mission his entire life, will be
receiving the ANC Legacy Award," Hamparian added.
Hacob Shirvanian was born in Tabriz, Iran in 1923. He is the son of a
family that played a prominent role in the defense of Van during the
Armenian Genocide. As a youth, Hacob’s first interaction with America was
serving as a translator for American forces in Tehran during World War II.
Following the war, he opened a jewelry shop and married Mina Der
Hovanessian, his wife of over 60 years. To this day, Hacob and Mina are
actively engaged in any number of Armenian organizations.
Arriving in America in 1956, Shirvanian moved to Los Angeles after a brief
stay in Springfield, Massachusetts. After securing a job as a machinist in
southern California, he would later join his brother Kosti and sister Savey
in a waste management business based in Gardena, California. That company,
over time, would grow to become one of the largest waste management
companies in California.
Since his first days in the United States, Hacob was actively engaged in the
Armenian American community. He began his involvement as a member and later
as chairman of the Van Compatriotic Union in Los Angeles. Hacob served as
the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Ferrahian School while his
wife Mina assumed the role of PTA President for 3 years. Together, they
played an important role in building the strong foundation of the Ferrahian
School.
Some years later he would join and begin his lifelong involvement with the
Armenian Educational Foundation. As Chairman of this organization,
Shirvanian helped to provide support for Armenian schools in Beirut, Cyprus,
Iran and later on was instrumental in establishing a network of Armenian
private schools operating under the auspices of the Prelacy of the Western
United States. Over the past ten years, Shirvanian has made a number of
philanthropic donations to rebuild or construct new schools in
Nagorno-Karabagh (Stepanakert, Lachin and Kelbajar) and in Javakh, which is
in the southern portion of the Republic of Georgia.
Hacob Shirvanian has the distinction of having been the longest serving
Armenian American on state commissions in California. In 1973 he was
appointed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan to the State Solid Waste Management
Board where he served for 12 years. In a strong display of his bipartisan
credentials, Shirvanian would go on to be appointed to a number of other
state commissions by Governors Jerry Brown, George Deukmejian, Grey Davis
and Pete Wilson. Additionally, Shirvanian was appointed to California’s
Small Business Administration Board by Governor Deukmejian. During this
period, Shirvanian consistently leveraged his relationships with senior
government officials to advance the concerns of Armenian Americans in the
State of California.
For more information, contact ANC-WR Banquet Coordinator Felicia
Garver at (818) 500-1918.
The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest and most
influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the
Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated
organizations around the country, the ANC-WR advances the concerns of the
Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.