HARRY ORBELIAN — SET UP GORBACHEV’S S.F. TRIP
by Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (California)
March 28, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL Edition
Harry Orbelian, an Armenian immigrant with a rags-to-riches life story
who will be remembered as the man who persuaded Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev to visit San Francisco in 1990, has died at the
age of 85.
Mr. Orbelian had cancer and died Sunday at his Sonoma home.
He arrived at Ellis Island in 1948 with only $10 in his pocket, took
a job as a janitor at a San Francisco department store, climbed the
ranks and became a millionaire who hobnobbed with politicians and
brokered international trade deals.
His biggest success, however, came by chance — and after a few
glasses of champagne — during a dinner at the Kremlin in 1985.
Never bashful, Mr. Orbelian, who was overseas with a trade delegation
that included then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, worked
up enough courage to talk his way through Russian bodyguards and
introduce the American mayor to the Soviet leader, whom Mr. Orbelian
had never met.
They extended Gorbachev an invitation to San Francisco, and Mr.
Orbelian, never known to take no for an answer, continued to work
the diplomatic channels for five years until Gorbachev made a visit
in 1990.
“He was quite a guy … nobody could have done that except Harry,”
said longtime friend Donald Doyle, a former state assemblyman who
previously ran the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, where Mr.
Orbelian also worked. “Harry never gave up on any issue.”
Mr. Orbelian was born in Armenia to a mother who worked as a
high-ranking official in the oil industry and a father who became a
general in the feared KGB secret police and was killed during one of
Josef Stalin’s purges.
At the start of World War II, the young Orbelian was drafted into the
Red Army and later was captured and sent to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp
in Germany. After the war, Mr. Orbelian and other POWs were labeled
traitors by Stalin’s regime and turned away from their homeland.
He attended medical school in Munich, where he met a doctor who would
become his wife of 53 years, Vera Voznesenskaya.
He never finished medical school, but he found success elsewhere.
Upon arriving in San Francisco in 1949, one of the first things he
did was look for the first Armenian name he spotted in the phone book
and make a phone call.
“That person helped get him a job as a janitor at Gump’s,” said Mr.
Orbelian’s son, George.
Mr. Orbelian’s tenacity caught the attention of higher-ups, and he
was quickly promoted, ultimately rising to become the famous store’s
director of operations and a member of the board of directors.
By 1954, he had earned money to buy a 10-unit building in San
Francisco, and he prospered in the city’s lucrative real estate
market. Eventually, he owned numerous apartment buildings and an
office building in Los Angeles, and he split his time between homes
in San Francisco and Sonoma.
He joined the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce in the late 1970s,
where he headed the international department and organized trade
missions to more than 50 countries.
“He is a priceless gem, this fellow,” the late San Francisco Mayor
George Christopher once said about his friend. “I’ve never seen a
man with so many talents.”
Thanks to his far-reaching influence, Mr. Orbelian returned numerous
times to the Soviet Union as an ambassador of sorts, encouraging
trade and business interests.
In 1992, he founded the San Francisco Global Trade Council, which works
to promote economic ties between the Bay Area and foreign countries. He
worked on everything from trying to get the San Francisco Giants
to host the Cuban national baseball team to connecting California
businessmen with the president of Kazakhstan.
He also was a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which
recognizes those who have helped strengthen free society. In January,
he and his wife received an award from the Russian Consulate for
being exemplary parents and role models for their children.
“One of his great lines,” said his son George, “that he greeted
everybody with was, ‘My wonderful brother.’ ”
Mr. Orbelian is survived by his wife, Vera; sons George Orbelian of
San Francisco and Constantine Orbelian of Moscow; daughter Helen
Burns of San Francisco; brother Konstantine Orbelian of Glendale
(Los Angeles County); six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Services will take place Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the St. Gregory
Armenian Apostolic Church, 51 Commonwealth Ave., San Francisco.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO Harry Orbelian entered the United States with only
$10 in his pocket and became a millionaire.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
