BRAVE AND PATRIOT: IN MEMORY OF COLONEL OF THE U.S. ARMY
Lragir.am
27/04/10
In memory of retired U.S. Military Army Col. Murad Muradyan (Duke),
who died of leukemia on September 30, 2009 in Richmond.
Murad was born in Providence in the family of Paul and Nazli Muradyan.
He had three sisters: Anna (deceased), Anahit and Beatrice. Murad
married his girlfriend from University Lillian, a ceremony was held
at the Church of St. Sahak and Mesrop in Providence in 1955.
Murad get spacious education: art history, philosophy, conflict,
and military affairs. Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of
Philosophy, Mouradian received higher military education and served in
the U.S. Army a total of 30 years. He taught history and international
relations in the U.S. Military Academy (West Point, New York), served
in the 3rd Infantry Division in Vizburge (Germany), worked in the
Pentagon, in Hawaii, Korea. He met with President of Korea and dined at
the Blue House (Korean analogue of the White House). After retirement
in 1987, he worked at the Institute for analysis and resolution of
conflicts as a member of the Working Group on the Caucasus.
Murad was in the Committee on Armenian issues under the governor
of Virginia and worked as a consultant to numerous organizations
involved in conflict resolution in the international arena, as a
licensed mediator in the House of Representatives, Virginia.
He served on the boards of many Armenian-American organizations,
including the National Association of Armenian Studies (NAASR), and
also led the development of the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA). He
was also a member of the parish council at St. Mary Armenian Church
in Washington and the Armenian Church Sv.Dzheymsa in Richmond.
Since 1995, Murad was in the committee Armenia Tree Projetc (ATP),
whch was founded in 1994 and managed to reach the solution of
many issues. The committee is working to improve the landscape,
environmental infrastructure and living standards for thousands of
Armenians, offering employment and organizing tree planting in Armenia.
Murad was an invited professor in the sphere of study of conflicts of
the faculty of sociology at Yerevan State University where he served
as director of the center of conflict. He visited Armenia many times
during 1990-2008; he paid visits to Nagorno-Karabakh during the years
of the war as well as afterwards.
His commentaries in the press generally touched upon such problems
as the genocide of the Armenians, Jewish people, American Indians,
peoples of Cambodia and Africa. In several articles, he emphasized
that the genocide of 1915 is one of the most important studies of
the Armenian position on the independence and security of Armenians
of Karabakh. His doctoral dissertation was devoted to the Karabakh
conflict. Later, he published a book "A New Look at TARC", in which he
analyzed the issue of Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission. He
has worked in three Armenian-American newspapers: Armenian Reporter,
Armenian Observer and the Armenian Mirror-Spectator.
Role model for Murad was John Wayne, hence his nickname Duke. The wife
of Murad, Lilian Mouradian survived him. They have four children,
eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His two sisters are
still alive – Anahit Boyajian and Beatrice Petricone and many other
members of a large family, with a history to preserve the memory of
the brave colonel and kind man.