Indianapolis Star, IN
Feb 9 2007
A LIFE LIVED: Vandos Shadigian, 1924-2007
Immigrant had more than 20 patents
By David Mannweiler
[email protected]
Vandos Shadigian invented the part about the insurance man when he
knocked on his future wife’s upstairs apartment door in Hudson Falls,
N.Y.
"I had my first teaching job out of college in a nearby town and was
moving into an old house that was made into four apartments," Mary
Shadigian said.
"He saw me lugging boxes up to my apartment. He came upstairs,
knocked on my door and said he was expecting an insurance man and had
I seen him?"
Mr. Shadigian devised that excuse to meet the woman he would be
married to for 45 years until his death Jan. 25 in Indianapolis at
age 82.
It wasn’t his only invention. On the walls in the family room at his
Indianapolis home hang more than 20 framed patents. The chemist’s
most significant patent may be for an environmentally friendly
alternative to toxic PCBs used in capacitors. He also took part in
General Electric’s original research into nickel cadmium batteries.
The family room also has numerous trophies he won at Indianapolis
Chess Club competitions at the Eastgate shopping center.
Mr. Shadigian’s long journey to Indianapolis began in Tbilisi,
Georgia, in the northern Caucasus Mountains of Russia. His father,
Oksen, was an Armenian freedom fighter and a survivor of the 1915-16
Armenian genocide. During World War II, Shadigian and his father were
held in a German forced-labor camp.
"He was devoted to his father," his wife said. "When we lived in
Hudson Falls, Vandos’ father lived in the Albany-Troy, New York,
area. We would see his father and visit with the Armenian community
there. There was an Armenian Club campground where they prepared
Armenian food. Vandos was a very proud man and very proud of his
heritage."
Mr. Shadigian read and wrote Armenian and knew Russian, Polish,
German and English. He never lost his Armenian accent, his wife said,
and frequently confused listeners by dropping prepositions from his
sentences.
Mr. Shadigian, who immigrated with his father to Boston after the
war, came to Indianapolis in 1977, when he took a job with the old
P.R. Mallory Co. He retired in 1987.
The value of education was instilled in his two daughters.
"He stressed grades and achievements," Vanda Shadigian said. "He
would get up on a Saturday morning to take my sister Elizabeth and me
to a 5 a.m. bus for an away debate when we were at Warren Central
(High School)."
Dr. Elizabeth Shadigian received a degree in chemistry from Purdue
University and a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. She
has an OB-GYN practice in Ann Arbor, Mich.
A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at Old Bethel United
Methodist Church, 7995 E. 21st St.