C.K. Garabed

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C.K. Garabed Mars symbol.svg
Other names Charles Garabed (Der) Kasbarian
Birthplace Jersey City
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Birth date 5 May 1927
Lived in Teaneck
Education New York University, Adelphi University
Profession Financial Management
Positions Financial Management Officer
Religion Armenian Apostolic
Languages Armenian, English
Ethnicities Armenian
Dialects Western Armenian
Ancestral villages Dikranagerd
Spouses Aghavni (Alice Hamparian Kasbarian)
Children Antranig Kasbarian, Lucine Kasbarian

Bio

C. K. Garabed, Actor, Aphorist, Archivist, Chef, Choral Conductor, Columnist, Commentator, Composer, Critic, Editor, Essayist, Folk Dancer, Inventor, Lecturer, Lexicographer, Painter, Photographer, Playwright, Poet, Political cartoonist, Record Producer, Stand-up Comedian, Vocalist. In short, a jack of all arts, and master of none.

C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans.

He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, ARARAT. For more than 35 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 20 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname.

He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.

Obituary

CHARLES GARABED KASBARIAN

(May 5, 1927 – May 8, 2022)

Charles Garabed (Der) Kasbarian, a recognized figure in the Armenian community, in Teaneck, NJ, died at the age of 95.

Better known by his pen name of C.K. Garabed, as well as Uncle Garabed, he was a newspaper columnist and devotee of all things Armenian. He was also known as the preserver of the dialect, customs, and the cuisine of Dikranagerd.

Mr. Kasbarian was born in Jersey City, NJ, on May 5, 1927, to Hagop Der Kasbarian and Lusia Kazanjian, Armenian Genocide survivors from Dikranagerd, Western Armenia. The second of four brothers, he was raised in Union City, NJ, also known as “Little Dikranagerd.”

He graduated from Emerson High School in Union City, NJ. During World War Two, he served in the U.S. Navy and later went to college on the G.I. Bill. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from New York University and his Master’s degree in Management from Adelphi University.

By profession, Mr. Kasbarian was a financial management officer for the U.S. Department of Defense. His wry sense of humor, for which he was known among his family and friends, found an outlet in his column for The Armenian Weekly, called “Uncle Garabed’s Notebook,” which featured a potpourri of facts, trivia, proverbs and deconstructions of Armenian surnames. He produced this column for the pages of The Armenian Weekly for 33 years and right up until the end.

Mr. Kasbarian was active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations of New York and New Jersey all his life. He was a member of the Armenian National Chorus, conducted by Maestro Mihran Toumajan, one of the famous “five students” of Gomidas. He was also a member of New York City’s St. Illuminator’s Armenian Apostolic Cathedral Choir under the baton of Toumajan’s student, Armen Babamian. There he met and married the late lyric soprano, administrator, and educator Alice Aghavni Hamparian, born in New York City. They settled in New Jersey, participating in parish life at Sts. Vartanantz Church. They had two children: Lucine Kasbarian, writer, cartoonist, and publicist, and John Antranig Kasbarian, Ph.D., currently Director of Development for the Tufenkian Foundation.

Mr. Kasbarian was a founding member of Sts. Vartanantz Church (1957), serving on the first auditing committee of the Church building project. He served many terms on the Church Board of Trustees and was a mainstay in the Church Men’s Club, whose primary purpose was to fundraise for the Church. The Men’s Club also sponsored the Church’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams that participated in the Armenian Churches Sports Association (ACSA) League. Kasbarian represented Sts. Vartanantz for many years at the ACSA. He also attended National Representative Assemblies (NRA) as a delegate from Sts. Vartanantz. For some years, he and his wife served as board members of the Nareg Armenian Saturday School and both sang in the Hamazkayin Chorus under the baton of Maestro Raffi Sevadjian.

A devotee of classical and Armenian folk music, Kasbarian liked to compose and belonged to many choirs and chorales. He, along with family members and friends, performed with the Nayiri Dance Ensemble of New York, a Western Armenian folk song and dance troupe.

In his twilight years and with the help of his daughter Lucine, Mr. Kasbarian produced several Armenian literary projects begun more than half a century ago, among them, The Dikranagerdtsi Vernacular Handbook; The Dictionary of Armenian Surnames; and An Unusual Look at Biblical Subjects, most which can be accessed in his Armeniapedia archive. A few months before his passing, he completed the final draft of “Oyin Mi Tavli,” a one-act play written exclusively in the dialect of Dikranagerd.

He is predeceased by his wife Alice Aghavni, and brothers Antranig, John Hovhannes, and Haroutiun Sarkis, as well as his cousins Zohrab, Vahan, Hratch and Kevork Dadoyan, and his brothers and sisters-in-law Nishan and Nevarte, and Ardashes and Mary Hamparian.

Kasbarian is survived by his daughter Lucine Kasbarian and husband David Boyajian; his son, John Antranig Kasbarian and wife Maro Matosian. He is also survived by his cousins Sossie Dadoyan-Arlia, Houri Dadoyan-Darakjian, Papken Dadoyan, Dzovig Dadoyan-Ekmekji, Salpi Dadoyan-Nakanishi and Mary Dadoyan, as well as his nieces Anahid and Lorig Hamparian, and Susan Kasbarian-Record; his nephews Andy Kasbarian, Greg, John, Charlie and Richard Kasbarian; Aram N, Vartan, Aram S, and Raffi Hamparian, and many beloved cousins and great nieces and nephews from the Kasbarian, Dadoyan, Hamparian, Kazanjian, and Alipounarian families.

According to his wishes, Charles Kasbarian’s remains will be interred on both Armenian and American soil to reflect his love for his ancestral and adopted homelands.

Lectures and Speeches

Travelogue

Books Written

Books Edited

Books Reviewed

Plays

Short Stories

Poems and Prose Poems

Aphorisms

Articles

Commentaries and Letters to the Editor

Interviews

Music Compositions

  • Ad Puerum (Persicos Odi) Ode by Horace, Music by Charles Kasbarian, performed by the Teaneck Community Chorus (NJ); Steven Bell, Artistic Director.
  • Rondeau du Printemps Poem by Charles d'Orleans, Music by Charles Kasbarian; Vocal: Alice Kasbarian; Guitar: Berdj Tashjian; Flute: Seta Tashjian. Performed at Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church, New Jersey, November 25, 1979.
  • Cowboy's Lament Music and Lyrics by Charles Kasbarian, performed by Charles Kasbarian.
  • In Me La Morte Poem by Michelangelo, Music by Charles Kasbarian, performed by Charles Kasbarian.
  • Teaneck, The Heart of the Garden State Music and lyrics by Charles Kasbarian, performed by the Teaneck Community Chorus (NJ); Steven Bell, Artistic Director.

Vocal and Video Recordings

Record Production

  • Alice Hamparian Kasbarian, Lyric Soprano
  • [John Antranig Kasbarian, pianist, Recital, Teaneck High School, 1981]
  • [John Antranig Kasbarian, pianist, Recital and concert, 1980/1981]
  • [John Antranig Kasbarian, pianist, Recital, Sulzberger Parlor, Barnard College, 1985]
  • Celebration of Life[Painting (Celebration of Life) by Garabed Music by Gomidas Vartabed; Vocal: Alice Hamparian]

Visual Arts

Archives

Miscellany

Articles that mention C.K. Garabed

Works in Translation

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