AFTER 28 YEARS, SANGER TO NAME PARK AFTER FAMILY

Fresno Bee, CA
July 17 2007

City Council takes decades to commemorate couple who had donated
property to the city in 1979.By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee07/17/07
04:14:01

SANGER — Twenty-eight years ago, Sanger city officials accepted a
small piece of land from a local family and agreed to turn it into
a park and name it after them.

The city finally is living up to its promise.

After decades of inaction that city officials are at a loss to explain,
the City Council earlier this month voted to rename Arbor Park after
Vagharshak and Flora Galoostian, an immigrant couple whose property
at P and 10th streets inspired praise from author William Saroyan.

"This is long overdue," said parks commissioner Ed Cuadros, who has
been prodding city officials for years to look into the issue.

Cuadros’ effort began in 1989, when the city named a nearly one-acre
grassy lot Arbor Park. During the ceremony, Cuadros met Carr Arpiar
Galoostian, who told the gathering that his family had donated the
land to the city.

Cuadros said he and other park and city officials promised Galoostian
that a plaque would be erected at the park to commemorate his
parents. Former city parks director August Hioco recalled recently
that he and the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission even voted to
erect the plaque in the family’s honor.

But then nothing happened. Hioco said he doesn’t know why.

Over the years, Cuadros never gave up, bugging city leaders and
staffers about the promise.

In June, Peter Filippi — Cuadros’ friend and fellow parks commissioner
— decided to step in. He researched property records at the Fresno
County Hall of Records. He found the Galoostian deed — and an
attached agreement.

The documents state that Carr Arpiar Galoostian gave the city his
parents’ home on Dec. 12, 1979. The agreement with the city stipulated
that the parcel would be turned into a park and named after them. Six
days later, the City Council unanimously accepted Galoostian’s gift,
city records show.

Mayor Michael Montelongo said he doesn’t know why past City Councils
failed to live up to the promise.

Rene Gonzalez, who served on the City Council from 1978 to 1990, said
the city accepted the gift but had no money to turn it into a park.

He also said the Galoostian property came with stipulations and was
not part of the city’s plan, so the council didn’t know what type of
park it should be.

"There was one obstacle after another, so nothing was done," Gonzalez
said. "I’m glad to hear the family is finally being recognized."

Montelongo said the current council acted quickly once it received
a copy of the Galoostian deed and agreement.

"We are thrilled to finally have everything we need to do this,"
Montelongo said.

Surviving relatives of the Galoostians say they harbor no ill will
toward city officials.

"Things happen, and the needs of a community often change," said
grandson Ariel Calonne, 48, the city attorney of Boulder, Colo.

"We’re grateful for what the city is doing."

A plaque and a rededication ceremony are in the works. City officials
haven’t scheduled it yet — but they promise that this time, it won’t
fall through the cracks.

Cuadros said he wished the city had acted sooner because Carr Arpiar
Galoostian, a retired civil engineer for the California Division of
Highways, lived in Sanger until his death in August 1999 at age 85.

The family has had a lasting impact on the community.

Vagharshak and Flora Galoostian lived in Isfahan, Persia (now known
as Iran), and Calcutta, India, before moving to Sanger in the 1920s.

He was a college professor; she was a homemaker. They had two sons —
Yervand and Carr, who went by Arpiar — and two daughters, Mariam
and Carine.

Flora Galoostian died in 1978 at age 91. Her husband died a year
later at age 94.

The Galoostians had dozens of fruit and olive trees on their property,
raised goats and chickens, and had a full vegetable garden, said
Ariel Calonne and his brother, David Calonne, 53, a professor at
Eastern Michigan University.

The brothers said their grandfather wrote classical Armenian plays
and had an extensive home library with books about ancient Armenia
and Persia. Saroyan was a frequent guest, they said.

Vagharshak Galoostian often drove a Model A to the Kings River near
Piedra to gather river rocks, which he used to build a wall and a
circular monument in the backyard.

The brothers are the sons of Mariam Galoostian, who died in 2005. The
two said they do not know if their mother’s other siblings still
are alive.

Bernice Barnes, 87, who has lived across the street from the Galoostian
property for 50 years, said the Galoostians were friendly and giving.

Vagharshak Galoostian often shared fruit, vegetables and dinners with
neighbors, and his wife taught Barnes how to can food and make yogurt
and dolma, a meat and vegetable dish wrapped in grape leaves. "I know
my life is richer because of them," Barnes said.

Today, a wall made of river stones that the Galoostians built and
a pepper tree that they planted in the 1930s remain, as do the
cobblestone steps that led to their home. The home was demolished
long ago. Many of the trees are gone.

The Calonnes have a memento from those times — a note from Saroyan
that reads: "To Vagharshak Galoostian, a poet and scholar, man of
the pepper tree and river stones."