ABRAHAM BODURGIL LIBRARY OF …
The Washington Post
August 13, 2006 Sunday
Final Edition
Abraham Bodurgil, 94, a retired Turkish area specialist at the Library
of Congress, died Aug. 7 of pneumonia at his home in Bethesda.
Mr. Bodurgil, of Armenian descent, was born Abraham Bodurian in
Istanbul. (Turkish authorities changed his Armenian surname to make
it sound more Turkish.)
He grew up in the village of Rumeli Hisar, near Istanbul, at a time of
great difficulty for the Armenian minority in Turkey. During World War
I, several hundred thousand Armenians perished in what most historians
consider state-sponsored genocide. With his father serving in the
Turkish army, Mr. Bodurgil and his mother survived with help from a
Turkish family that took them in and sheltered them.
After the war, his father became a gardener at Robert College in
Istanbul, a private American college founded in 1863. Mr. Bodurgil
was admitted, despite being a poor villager, and distinguished himself
as a champion javelin and discus thrower. He received his bachelor’s
degree in economics, with honors, in 1935.
He served with the Turkish army during World War II and then worked
for 20 years at the American Consulate in Istanbul as a press attache.
In 1959, he immigrated to the United States and joined the Library
of Congress, where he was responsible for the Armenian Collection
in the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division
of the library. He made two acquisition survey trips to Turkey and
built up the collection substantially.
Mr. Bodurgil produced several bibliographic guides to material on
modern Turkey, including "Turkey: Politics and Government, 1938-1975"
and "Kemal Ataturk: A Centennial Bibliography, 1881-1981." He also
served as an occasional Turkish interpreter for the White House and
federal agencies. He retired in 1984.
He was a senior member of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church in
the District, and he served as parish council chairman and diocesan
delegate. He also was a member of the Knights of Vartan Brotherhood.
Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Eliza Bodurgil of Bethesda;
a son, Edward Bodurian of Bethesda; and three grandsons.