Sierra Sun, CA
July 20 2004
Azad McIver leaves town a lasting legacy
Renée Shadforth
Azad McIver was a small, seemingly shy woman who lived in a tiny
Gateway cottage, but her longtime friends say she had a huge giving
spirit that had a large impact on the Truckee of today.
McIver died July 13 at the age of 95. She and her siblings – Roxie
Archie and Richard Joseph, who preceded her in death – emigrated from
Turkish Armenia in the early 1900s and left a strong legacy in the
Truckee community.
McIver, considered the most soft-spoken and easygoing of her
siblings, was one of the last in a generation that formed Truckee
into what it is today.
“Azad was this remarkable spirit. She always had a giggle or a
laugh,” said Embree “Breeze” Cross, a longtime Truckee resident and
former town council member. “She always found delight in things. She
was the most delightful girl.”
Namesakes of McIver’s generation are splattered all over Truckee.
There are McIver Arena and McIver Hill, named after Azad McIver’s
late husband, Jim. And then there is the Joseph Government Center,
named after the Joseph family.
In 1949, McIver’s brother donated the land for Tahoe Forest Hospital
and the money for many of its facilities. Decades later, after her
siblings died, McIver provided more land for the hospital’s current
expansion project.
“They wanted to build more, I said ‘OK,'” McIver told the Sierra Sun
in March 2003, her words colored with the remnants of her Old Country
accent. “My brother’s wish was to build a hospital. I’d rather take
care of our people here than give it to Uncle [Sam].”
McIver saw most of her friends die in the same hospital. Others moved
from Truckee to more temperate climates.
Azad McIver outlasted most of them.
“I’ve had a lot of good friends,” she told the Sierra Sun. “Most of
them just aren’t around anymore. I come from good stock.”
From Armenia to Truckee
The imprint the Joseph (formerly Hovsepian) family left on Truckee
came after many life struggles and a lot of old-fashioned hard work.
Until her death, McIver was able to tell the stories from her youth
in the Old Country and Truckee in astonishing detail.
McIver was born in Harpoot, in Turkish Armenia, on Oct. 12, 1908 – 18
years after her brother, Dick, and four years after her sister,
Roxie.
At age 6, McIver fled her homeland under her 10-year-old sister’s
wing during the Armenian massacre. They left Turkey on foot, walking
through the Syrian desert to Aleppo, Syria. The girls were placed in
an orphanage staffed by British and French missionaries who kept them
from starving to death.
After contacting their Uncle Mgurdich in Andover, Mass., the sisters
purchased third-class boat tickets and came to the United States on
July 4, 1920.
“I cried – what a beautiful place with beautiful people,” Azad
recalled about her experience coming to America. “It was strange. All
I knew before was Turks, and they wanted to kill us.”
At 16, Azad’s sister, Roxie, married and moved to Worchester, Mass.
Soon after, the newlyweds and Azad moved to Chicago.
In 1922, Dick Joseph – who moved to the States in 1906 and to Truckee
in 1917 – advertised for his sisters in an Armenian newspaper
published in Fresno, Calif. Someone in Chicago brought the ad to the
sisters’ attention, and McIver and Archie met their brother in
Truckee later that year.
A legacy of her own
Although McIver always maintained she donated money to fulfill the
wishes of her brother, who passed away in 1986, McIver created quite
a legacy of her own, said Bob Tilton, who started the Tahoe Forest
Hospital Foundation in 1987.
“Dick did a lot for the community, but Azad carried the banner after
his death,” Tilton said. “Every single expansion the hospital has
ever done, Azad either took part in fund-raising or donated money.”
Tilton, 58, grew up in the Truckee-North Tahoe area and knew the
Joseph family well. He went to Azad once a year to seek a donation
for the hospital, even when her older sister was the one handling the
family’s business.
“[McIver] definitely felt compelled to help the hospital. She always
told me the hospital was vital to building a strong community,”
Tilton said.
In addition to what she gave to Tahoe Forest Hospital, McIver became
a founding member of the Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation in 1999.
The Joseph family also donated to the University of Nevada, Reno
Foundation and Shriners Hospital, among other causes.
Modest living
A photographer and barber by trade, Dick Joseph made his money as a
businessman. He owned Manstyle Barbers, a cigar store and the Pastime
Club in downtown Truckee.
As a young adult, Azad worked at the Pastime, which was a popular
local hangout and speakeasy at the time. Azad met many interesting
people while working at the restaurant, including her late husband,
Jim McIver, a local blacksmith, dairyman and car salesman who
delivered mail to Tahoe City. Azad and Jim McIver were married in
Reno on Aug. 10, 1944.
In 1935, Richard Joseph purchased the land between Gateway and Donner
Lake from the Union Ice Company. The family built the Gateway Motel
in 1939, near the present site of Safeway,
McIver lived modestly in one of the former rental cottages in Gateway
for decades. The walls of her home were plastered with photos
depicting Truckee at a different time.
“They had a lot of money, but you’d never know it,” Tilton said of
the Joseph family. “They traveled a lot, but they didn’t dress fancy.
Dick would be dressed in his old coat. Azad would be dressed in her
old coat.”
Responsibility for community
When Truckee became a town in 1993, Archie and McIver asked
then-Mayor Kathleen Eagan and council member Breeze Cross to come to
their Gateway home. Cross had no idea why at the time.
“They called us over, and they’d heard the town didn’t have any
money, since it was new,” Cross recalls. “They said ‘It’s terrible
that the town doesn’t have any money, so here’s a check for $25,000.’
We were amazed. It was so touching.”
Archie and McIver were known to pop into a public meeting every now
and then when an important decision was going to be made. They wanted
to know about the decisions made in their community, Tilton said.
“That’s the way our community used to be – we helped each other. We
had to,” Tilton said. “Any decision you made affected someone you
know personally.”
In 1997, Archie – McIver’s sister and lifelong companion – passed
away in the Tahoe Forest Hospital long-term care center. Since Archie
handled most of the family’s business, there was some concern about
McIver, the shy sister, carrying the family torch.
But friends say she blossomed and continued to give in the Joseph
family spirit.
“Truckee was their family and they always made us part of their
family,” Tilton said of the Josephs. “The whole family just took it
on as their responsibility, and Azad carried that legacy.”