Detroit Free Press, MI
July 25 2005
Edward Jamian: Longtime businessman faced each day with a smile
July 25, 2005
BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
In his wallet, across from his driver’s license, Edward Jamian always
carried a photo of his wife of 57 years, Kora.
He’d pull the wallet from his pocket, open it up to display his
wife’s smiling face next to his license mug shot. Then, he’d fold the
wallet shut with a quip: “Look, now we’re kissing.”
Mr. Jamian’s good humor and never-ending optimism were hallmarks of
his life.
The longtime businessman and insurance agent from Bloomfield Hills
died Friday from complications of congestive heart failure at
Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. He was 83.
“He faced each day with a smile and never surrendered to negative
thinking,” said his son, John Jamian, a former state representative
from Bloomfield Hills who is now acting administrator of the U.S.
Maritime Administration.
Mr. Jamian was born in Turkey. When he was a toddler, his family
escaped the turmoil following the Armenian genocide by fleeing to
Banes, Cuba. In Cuba, the family owned a general store called the
Republic of Armenia. As a youngster, Mr. Jamian helped out by fixing
toys for sale.
At age 15, he and his family immigrated to Detroit, where Eduardo
Jamgotchian became Edward Jamian. He learned to speak English with
the Spanish accent he acquired in Cuba.
He graduated from Northwestern High School in Detroit and enlisted in
the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he was a staff sergeant and aerial
engineer teaching recruits aboard Mitchell B25 bombers during World
War II.
Mr. Jamian dubbed the B25 he piloted the Detroit Flash, painting the
name in bright red letters.
After the war, he courted his future wife at church socials at St.
John Armenian Church, when it was located in northwest Detroit, and
he impressed her with his dance moves.
He also studied accounting at the Detroit Business Institute, and
like several members of Detroit’s Armenian immigrant community, owned
or operated hotels and apartments in and around downtown Detroit.
Mr. Jamian once owned three hotels, including the La Plaza at the
corner of Grand River and Cass. From 1962 into the early 1990s, he
worked as a real estate broker and insurance agent.
“We didn’t measure anything in finances. My father measured
everything in honor,” his son said. “My dad didn’t have
acquaintances. He had true friends. He gave to anybody who asked him.
… If he had it, he would give it.”
Among his proudest moments were when his two sons were elected to
public office. John Jamian was elected to the state Legislature in
1991 and served through 1996. Gregory Jamian was elected in 2002 to
the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, representing Bloomfield
Hills, West Bloomfield and Orchard Lake, where he still serves.
Besides his wife and sons, Mr. Jamian is survived by a daughter,
Christina Johnson, and eight grandchildren.
Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. today at St. John Armenian
Church, 22001 Northwestern Highway, Southfield.
A Knights of Vartan service will be at noon in the church’s cultural
building. There will be a Masonic burial service under the auspices
of Ashlar Lodge No. 91 F&AM at 2:15 p.m. in Woodlawn Cemetery Chapel
in Detroit.