The University Record, May 6, 1997
Manoogian Foundation adds $500,000 to
Armenian Studies Program
By Joanne Nesbit
News and Information Services
The Alex and Marie Manoogian Foundation has added another $500,000 to the nearly $2 million donation it has made to the University’s Armenian Studies Program. The initial gift enabled the Armenian Studies Program to be the first to have two endowed chairs in Armenian Studies.
The Foundation established the Alex Manoogian Chair of Modern Armenian History in 1980 and the Marie Manoogian Chair of Armenian Language and Literature in 1987. The second chair was named for Manoogian’s wife.
“The Manoogian Family and Foundation have been very generous in their support of the U-M’s Armenian Studies Program,” says LS&A Dean Edie N. Goldenberg. “This new gift will help support the Alex Manoogian Professorship in Armenian History and the Marie Manoogian Professorship in Armenian Language and Literature. We are very grateful to the Foundation.”
The Armenian Studies Program, under the direction of Kevork B. Bardakjian, countinues to draw acclaim with its programs, courses, activities and its prestigious Armenian Language Summer Institute, which this year will offer first-year Eastern and Western Armenian Classes in Yerevan. Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the program study the culture, literature, history and other aspects of Armenian tradition. The U-M also has an exchange program involving scholars and students.
“This gift is yet another genuine manifestation of the Manoogians’ love for and dedication to Armenian culture,” Bardakjian says. “This will certainly provide a renewed impetus to teaching and conducting research into Armenian studies, and we express our profound gratitude to the Manoogians.”
Alex Manoogian immigrated to the United States from Turkey as a teenager in 1920, founded a small machine shop in Detroit called the Masco Screw Products Co., and eventually made a fortune through the development and marketing of a single-handled faucet. He received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and was awarded Armenia’s National Hero Medal and declared an Armenian citizen, the first individual outside that country to be so honored.
