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6 The Armenian Reporter | May 17, 2008
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THIS ARMENIAN LIFE
by Tamar
Kevonian
Michele walked into the Mexican restaurant
in a flurry of nervous energy,
flagging down the waiter as she slid
into the booth. She was there because
of a phone call a mere 30 minutes
earlier to meet at the usual place.
Except the time, no specifics were announced.
She was glad for the call. “I
need a drink,” she had said.
As she took her place with her
friends, the waiter noticed her and
before he arrived at the table Mardik
asked why she needed a drink.
“I don’t know if I told you guys
about this incident about my dog
walker and the dog” she asked,
referring to a recent incident with
a dog walker she hires to walk a
client’s pet.
“Would you like a drink” the
waiter interrupted.
“Yes, one of those,” she said,
pointing to a margarita glass on
the table.
“Can I see your ID” the waiter
asked.
We all burst into laughter. It had
been a long time since any of us
was asked that question.
“A 38-year-old just got carded,”
Michele said with a huge smile, enjoying
this small stroke to her vanity
since her birthday was only a
week away.
“Anyway,” she continued her story,
“the dog attacks the other dog - the
big dog attacks the little dog. The
dog gets 36 stitches.”
Michele’s dog was the big dog that
her contractor was walking. She
was ready to put the whole incident
behind her until the owner of the
small dog put up flyers around the
neighborhood. “dog attack,” said
the headline, with a description of
Michele and her contracted dog
walker. They were familiar fixtures
in the area and were known to many
in the neighborhood. “So I called
him up and said, ‘Thanks for putting
the flyers up like that because
I don’t know how to get a hold of
you,’” she said, describing her conversation.
She agreed to meet him,
take pictures of the dog to determine
that there was actual damage.
The owner of the dog requested that
Michele pay for the medical expenses.
“I don’t care about anything else.
I know it was an accident. Things
like this happen,” he had said and
Michele agreed to the terms.
The dog walker and the pet
owner had not exchanged contact
information in the mayhem that
followed the incident. “My dog attacked
and then attacked, attacked,
like three times, and then she took
off. More people came, she got
scared, and she took off and went
back home. Luckily,” she said. The
dog walker was in charge of two
dogs that day. When the large dog
attacked and ran, she had to run
after it and didn’t get a chance to
talk to the other owner but now,
because of the flyers, Michele had
found the other owner.
“So far things are going great,
we’re communicating. I’m like,
‘Ten days are up, did you remove
the stitches Is the dog OK’” she
asked him. “Today he writes me an
e-mail saying ‘As of yesterday the
doctor released the dog of all health
problems, everything is cool. Here
are the bills. The total comes out to
$382,’” she said. She had no issue
with the amount of the medical bills.
It was a sum she had expected, but
his e-mail continued on to ask for
The dog whisperer
an additional $60 for his daughter’s
gas expense. “I, of course, went to
MapQuest; I MapQuested from his
address to the vet and it’s not even
seven miles round trip,” she said, “so
I wrote him back and I’m like ‘You
know $60 seems a bit inflated, considering
it’s only seven miles round
trip, four trips total, maybe a gallon
of gas. I don’t know what kind of
car she drives but that’s a gallon of
gas for me, which at this rate today
is like $4. So like $4 versus $60,” she
mimed a scale with her two hands.
“I can’t believe this. He’s trying to
milk me for whatever he can,” she
said with an incredulous laugh.
She needs to settle this matter
quickly because the owners of the
dog who attacked are moving to New
York in a few days and she will have no
contact with them once they leave.
“They’re paying the vet’s bill,
right” asks Mardik.
“No. I’m paying for it. But if this
guy decides to be an a-hole about
it, I need to the talk to the owners,”
Michele explains. She’s worried
that the owner of the small dog
might sue her to collect the $60.
The waiter approaches the table to
ask for our food order. We hadn’t
opened the menu yet but, as regulars,
we knew our options and preferences.
“Are we getting one of the platters”
asks Mardik.
“No, I’m good,” says Michele.
“Nachos” I ask.
“Nachos!” says Mardik, savoring
the extended sound of the word
and the possibility of Michele and
I agreeing to the idea.
“Chicken or beef” asks the waiter.
“I prefer beef,” I say.
“Lots of salsa,” says Mardik.
“And jalapenos,” I say.
When we finally return to the topic
at hand, Michele continues with
her other reason for needing a drink.
“And the other thing is, I broke up
with my girlfriend,” she says.
“She is back in LA I ask. I knew
her girlfriend had been in town a
few weeks before.
“She came back and then it didn’t
hit me until she just left.”
“It didn’t hit you a few weeks ago
when you broke up” I ask, surprised.
“It didn’t hit me three weeks ago.
I figured I’m going to see her again.
Yes, officially we talked about it and
we broke up but…” Michele trails off.
“Why did you break up” I ask.
“Distance basically,” Michele says
briefly. She has been in this longdistance
relationship for two years
but came to the conclusion that she
wants to move forward towards a
significant long-term relationship,
that one separated by thousands of
miles was not the optimal way of
achieving her heart’s desire. “When
she’s here everything is great, but
when she leaves there’s this void and
it doesn’t feel good,” she says. She
prefers to be involved with someone
who lives in the same city as hers.
She considers the possibilities of
being on the other side of the country
but she can’t seem to settle the
issue in her mind. Both of their careers
– her girlfriend is an established
musician in New York and
she is a budding photo journalist
– rely on a network of people who
are in their respective cities. Restarting
somewhere else would be
extremely difficult. Besides, both
are close to their families and don’t
want to leave them behind.
“Who knows, a lot can change but
I feel like I can’t make the right decisions.
Nothing seems right. I make
one decision, it’s the wrong decision.
I go to another decision, and it’s like,
‘OK, that doesn’t feel right.’ I don’t
know. I just feel stuck. Stuck and
drinking margaritas,” Michele says
with a heartbreaking laugh while
she picks up her glass. “It’s just sad.”
We all toast and take a sip.
USC IAS SERIES
He continues to
champion American,
Armenian causes
by Adriana Dermenjian
Whether serving as a top U.S. government
official, a commissioned
naval officer, or a local community
leader, Paul Ignatius has always
been admired for his tremendous
energy and dedication. Born into a
family that escaped the horrors of
the Armenian Genocide and built
a new life in Glendale, California,
Ignatius recalls his childhood as a
constant flow of activity. “There
was always something going on,” he
says. “My father was very active in
the Armenian community and that
[served as a model for] my own participation
in various activities.”
Before his prominent positions
as secretary of the Navy and assistant
secretary of Defense, Ignatius
began his active lifestyle on a
smaller scale – he was involved in
several sports activities, served as
president of his student body in
high school, and also as president
of his junior class at usc.
Though these humble duties
soon led to bigger responsibilities,
Ignatius insists that his work in the
public sector came about partially
due to chance. “A lot of things just
seemed to happen,” Ignatius says.
“For instance, I got interested in
the field just by reading an article
in the New York Times Magazine.”
That article, by Dean Acheson, secretary
of State during the Truman
administration, discussed the great
amount of pride and privilege that
came with serving in government.
“I read the article and thought to
myself, ‘How interesting it would
be to work for the public sector,’”
Ignatius chuckles. “And then it happened.”
During World War II, when Ignatius
was a business student at
Harvard, he decided to delay his
MBA studies to serve in the Navy.
He acted as a commissioned lieutenant
for three and a half years,
serving on an aircraft carrier in
the Pacific and fighting against the
Japanese. “I really grew up when
I was in the military,” Ignatius recalls.
“It was there that I learned to
be comfortable with responsibility
and leadership.”
Upon his return, Ignatius did
not so much as skip a beat, quickly
completing his MBA degree at Harvard
and launching a business with
two friends soon after. Harbridge
House, Inc., a Boston-based management
consulting and research
firm, was formed by 1950 and
gradually grew to be a success. “At
first, we thought it would just be
a fun experience to start our own
company,” Ignatius says “But little
did I know that my experiences as
an outside consultant would well
prepare me for the next journey in
my life”.
This journey, of course, was that
of assistant secretary of Defense in
the Johnson administration. From
1965 to 1967, at the height of the
Vietnam War, Ignatius worked diligently
for “Instillations and Logistics,”
providing the military with
the goods and logistics necessary
for success. “It was a very busy
time,” Ignatius says. “I had to make
sure everything was accounted for
and all the military needs were met.
I had to do this at a time when the
war was becoming more and more
controversial to the American public.
It was tough, but I had to do
my job.”
Ignatius did his job so well that
he was soon promoted to secretary
Paul Ignatius: a man of ideals
of the Navy, a role he performed
from 1968 to 1969. In this position,
he was responsible for the
organization of the entire naval department
–recruiting, mobilizing,
training, and supplying. Working
closely with naval officers, Ignatius
was also required to communicate
with Congress – often having to
persuade Congress members of the
validity of his proposals. “Because I
had to work with both sides, good
judgment and the ability to be persuasive
were my biggest responsibilities,”
Ignatius says. “I had to be
a good civilian leader as well as a
persuasive speaker. Those are the
things that count.”
A vision of excellence
Ignatius maintains a similar outlook
on all his tasks. “You’ve got
to do the best you can,” he says.
Though he admits that leading the
Navy requires more responsibility
than serving in it, and that working
as an independent consultant is different
from consulting for the U.S.
government, he is adamant about
the unyielding dedication one must
have to their career. “In all my positions,
past and present, the common
goal has always been to do my
job and do it well,” he notes. “I’ve
always tried to be overly prepared,
which has helped in my confidence
and abilities as a leader.”
This unifying objective has also
translated well into Ignatius’ other
career routes. In 1969, following
his service as secretary of the
Navy, Ignatius landed the role of
president for The Washington Post.
Though several positions were offered
to him after his time in government,
he believed that working
as president of a highly-regarded
newspaper would be most interesting,
generating the most original of
experiences. At the Post, Ignatius
was responsible for the business
side of affairs – everything from
publications and printing to public
relations and human resources.
“In all good newspapers, you have
a separation between ‘church and
state,’” Ignatius says. “A separation
between business and editorial. So
I was the business side.”
After his time at The Washington
Post, Ignatius continued to put his
administrative expertise to good
use through a number of managerial
positions. In 1972, he became
president of the Air Transport Association,
representing airlines in
matters of safety, air traffic control,
and public information. Then, in
1986, he was appointed chairman
of the Board of Trustees of the
Logistics Management Institute, a
nonprofit organization dedicated
to consulting the government on
management issues. At the institute,
which he served for seven
years, his tasks included setting
policy, selecting board members,
and acting as a spokesperson.
Community pillar
Now, close to two decades later, Ignatius
goes about his life with less
professional responsibility and
more community activity. He is
very involved with the usc Institute
of Armenian Studies and the
National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research. “Since
the end of my career, I’ve had a
lot of time to read, think, and talk
to people,” Ignatius says. “When I
was growing up in the Navy and
government, I didn’t have much
time to think about my unique
background, but now I realize that
my Armenian heritage is an added
dimension to my character. It’s a
very valuable aspect.”
In addition to this return to
his Armenian roots, Ignatius
also manages to remain active in
several other organizations and
causes. He maintains membership
in the Federal City Council and the
Washington Institute of Foreign
Affairs. He is also a trustee of the
George. C. Marshall Foundation.
“I’m a firm believer that you have
to do something worthwhile in
your life,” Ignatius says. “You owe
a certain amount of responsibility
to the community where you live.
Whether you serve nationally or
internationally, in a small community
or a big institution, you have a
responsibility to give back to your
country.”
Though his services to the country
are remarkable and his accomplishments
are many, Ignatius asserts
that his greatest achievement
is his family. “Of all the things I’ve
done, I’m proudest of my family,”
he says. “My kids grew up believing
that they should play a responsible
role in society – and they all have.
It’s the best reward, knowing that
your kids are working hard and doing
the right thing.” Of Ignatius’
four children (David, Ari, Sarah, and
Amy), two are distinguished journalists,
one as op-ed columnist for
The Washington Post and the other
as deputy managing editor of Time,
and two are successful lawyers in
New England. “My wife’s been such
a good model for the kids,” Ignatius
says. “She’s always been very active
in the community so they learned a
lot about responsibility from her…
Maybe they learned some of it from
me too,” he adds modestly.
Because of his hard work and
dedication to the growth of the
usc Institute of Armenian Studies,
Paul Ignatius will be honored
at the institute’s gala banquet, an
event celebrating 50 years of “Progress
and Prosperity” in the Armenian
community. The banquet will
be held on May 18 at the Hilton
in Universal City, California, and
will also pay tribute to an array of
other accomplished Armenians including
George Deukmejian, Jerry
Tarkanian, and Mike Connors. “I’m
very pleased to be honored at such
an event,” Ignatius says. “Because
I’m a graduate of usc, the honor
holds a very personal value for me.
I also believe very strongly in the
institute and its role as a significant
development in the community.”
In addition to the long list of his
professional accomplishments, Ignatius
has won numerous Distinguished
Civilian Service awards and
recently published his own memoir,
titled On Board: My Life in the Navy,
Government, and Business.
Today Ignatius still maintains
the same outlook he did decades
prior. “Opportunities came my way
and I tried to do the best I could
with each of them,” he says. “It was
a privilege to serve in government
and to have the chance to serve our
country.” Ignatius, who will turn 88
in November, says he will continue
to be active in his beloved causes,
determined to “hang in there a little
longer.”
Let us know what’s on your mind.
Write to us at
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