The Patriot-News, Pennsylvania
Nov 23 2004
A QUIET BOW
Ailing Vartan hands over duties to family
BY TOM DOCHAT
Of The Patriot-News
John O. Vartan, a nearly penniless immigrant who used his
entrepreneurial zeal to become one of Harrisburg’s most influential
businessmen, is ending his reign over multiple enterprises because of
poor health.
Although Vartan’s oldest son, Hovig, and wife, Maral, are assuming
chairman functions of Vartan’s many businesses, they are not taking
on his titles.
Vartan, 59, has been a patient in Harrisburg Hospital for three weeks
in his 15-year battle with throat cancer. He is “not responsive,” his
son said yesterday, explaining that his father can breathe on his own
but is using a ventilator. “He’s stable. He’s comfortable,” Hovig
Vartan said.
“We are not anticipating that Mr. Vartan will return to an active
day-to-day role in the company,” said Robert J. DeSousa, executive
president, secretary and general counsel for The Vartan Group Inc.,
the umbrella company for Vartan’s businesses.
Employees of Vartan’s companies were informed of the situation
yesterday afternoon in a memo. More than 200 people work in the
Vartan ventures, which include a bank, a restaurant, a building
materials company and a construction and real estate business.
Employees have an “intense loyalty” to Vartan, DeSousa said.
In the memo, the Vartan family said it hopes Vartan can “enjoy a few
more years of peace in the presence of his loved ones.” But, the
family added, “Even if he should fully recover, it is unlikely that
he will be able to throw himself into his work with the same passion
and perspicuity for which he is famous. For him, to live means to
work.”
Vartan has been a dominant presence on the Harrisburg scene since the
late 1970s, when he began his embattled development of a series of
office buildings off North Progress Avenue in Susquehanna Twp.
He later set his sights on Harrisburg, first becoming embroiled in a
legal fight with Harristown Development Corp. and Mayor Stephen R.
Reed before beginning a cordial relationship with Reed that led to a
series of Vartan buildings in the city. The latest of those sites is
the state Department of Labor and Industry facility, 1521 N. Sixth
St.
“It’s fair to say that, in our area, there were very few people over
the last three decades that believed as strongly in Harrisburg as
John Vartan did,” DeSousa said.
He has been a controversial figure.
Jack S. Pincus, a former Susquehanna Twp. commissioner and director
of Vartan’s bank, conceded that Vartan has had his detractors. Some
of them lived in the township that Vartan successfully sued a few
years ago when he was denied a permit for a concrete-manufacturing
facility at his Linglestown Road business.
“Without a doubt, he had opposition to everything he did,” Pincus
said. “I always said that if he would build a Fort Knox in the
township and give a $50 tax credit to every resident, they would
still have 80 people coming in to express their opposition.”
Vartan’s businesses include Vartan National Bank, Parev restaurant in
downtown Harrisburg and the Vartan Supply Co. along Linglestown Road
in Susquehanna Twp.
The restaurant enabled The Tuesday Club to continue operations in a
renovated facility along Pine Street in the city, DeSousa said.
“Vartan stepped into the void and built a five-star, first-class
facility” that opens at 5 p.m. for the public and is used by The
Tuesday Club during the day.
His vision for those businesses will continue to motivate them,
DeSousa said. “There is no dramatic or substantial change in the
structure of the companies,” he said. “Every one of the company heads
knows the vision that John had and knows the parameters within that
vision.”
Vartan has contributed heavily to charitable organizations, something
his wife and son will continue to oversee. He is also involved in the
Armenian Apostolic Church’s worldwide activities.
Born and raised in a Lebanese refugee camp, Vartan came to the United
States about 40 years ago to attend Michigan Tech, transferring from
the American University of Beirut.
After graduating with a degree in civil engineering, Vartan started
work at Gannett-Fleming, a Harrisburg engineering firm. He earned a
master’s of engineering degree at Penn State University.
Hovig said his father vowed to Gannett-Fleming that he would form his
own business five years after he started working there. In 1975, he
founded his first company.
“He’s our father, and we love him dearly,” Hovig said yesterday.
During Vartan’s battle with throat cancer, he suffered with a dry
mouth, causing him to always carry a bottle of water. His appetite
suffered, and his speech was difficult to understand at times.
“Of all the things he did, I think the way he handled his health
problem was the most amazing,” Pincus said. Calling Vartan “very
ambitious,” Pincus said, “He has a determination that most people
can’t compete with.”