Press
Release
AGBU Marks the Inspired Life of Richard Manoogian, a Leader Who Understood the Value of Legacy
September 26, 2026
For immediate release
On September 25, 2026, Richard Manoogian passed away at age 90. He was the son of AGBU’s fifth president Alex Manoogian and his wife Marie, and
brother of AGBU’S sixth president Louise Manoogian Simone.
A titan of industry in his own right, he applied his own talents, skills, and vast business experience to
AGBU, first becoming a member of the Central Board in 1996. He was then elected to the Council of Trustees in 2006 and
later transitioned to serve as Emeritus Trustee on the AGBU Council of Trustees in 2019.
His long running success as the President and CEO of Masco Corporation, a global company in the home improvement and remodeling industry that
his father Alex founded after inventing the single-handle Delta® faucet, earned him the respect and esteem of his AGBU colleagues. He remained a source of wisdom, guidance, and perspective throughout the recent history of the organization.
AGBU
President Sam Simonian remarked, “Given
his own family legacy, Richard appreciated the importance of continuity and consistency while embracing opportunity and innovation. For all he achieved in life, as a business leader, a philanthropist and community leader, AGBU and countless Armenians touched
by his largesse have been better off for it.”
Like his father, Manoogian supported numerous projects in Armenia, advancing Armenian vocational, educational, and cultural initiatives. In America, in
2022 he stepped up as the benefactor of a 4,000 square foot Manoogian STEAM Center, a state-of-the-art, $2 million facility at the AGBU Alex & Marie Manoogian School in Southfield, Michigan. This came about after his funding of
the multimillion-dollar construction of a 35,000 sq. ft. high school building. Throughout his life, Manoogian proved himself an equal opportunity benefactor, able to spread
his resources astutely and judiciously to local, national, and international pursuits.
In parallel to his work in philanthropy, Manoogian presided over the Masco Corporation, bringing his timely vision to the company that his father, an immigrant
to the United States, founded–thus planting the seeds of an American Dream come true for a Genocide survivor and his progeny. In turn, Alex’s children Richard and Louise used their good fortune to uplift the lives of countless others and, along the way, endeared
themselves to many nations, in particular the United States and Armenian homeland.
In his mid-twenties, Richard Manoogian launched an expansionary plan for Masco that unleashed a momentous period of accelerated growth, reportedly
rarely equaled in American industry. Between 1960 and 1980, under Manoogian’s leadership, Masco expanded its operations and acquired more than 100 companies.
In 1985, he was named Masco’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. In 2007, after almost 50 years with the company, he stepped down
and became Masco’s Executive Chairman. In 2012, he was named Chairman Emeritus.
Masco’s exemplary stewardship enabled him to continue to express the family legacy’s spirit of charity and concern in myriad forms–from supporting world-class
universities and museums to local schools, hospitals, and non-profit organizations like AGBU.
The Manoogian name is widely known for the stately home Richard Manoogian grew up in on the Detroit River. In 1965, his father gifted the mansion to the
City of Detroit to use as the official mayoral residence. It was the family’s way of thanking the city of Detroit, which had become its home, as grateful Americans and proud Armenians.