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January 12, 2011
AGBU Director Emeritus Barry Zorthian Passes Away
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Barry Zorthian and his wife Margaret Aylaian Zorthian.
On December 30, 2010, longtime AGBU leader Barry Zorthian, 90, passed away at a Washington, DC-area hospital. Often described as a colorful US diplomat, he was a committed member of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU). Zorthian served as a member of the AGBU Central Board of Directors beginning in 1970; when he retired from the position a few decades later, he was given the title of Director Emeritus for his dedicated service. Born in 1920 to Armenian parents in Kutahya, Turkey, Zorthian immigrated to the US with his family and settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he went on to attend Yale University. Upon graduation in 1941, he served as a Marine Corps artillery officer in the Second World War. After a postwar position with CBS Radio, Zorthian spent 13 years with the Voice of America, during which time he reported on the Korean War. In 1964, he was chosen to run the Joint US Public Affairs Office and given the diplomatic rank of minister a year later, serving as press media advisor to three US ambassadors to South Vietnam. In 1968, he began a career in the private sector and worked for 12 years as president of Time Life Broadcast and Cable until moving on to other positions. Zorthian’s wife of 62 years, Margaret Aylaian Zorthian, died in July 2010, and he is survived by two sons, Greg and Steven, a daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren.
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