Longtime Jeweler Ara Barmakian Dies at 77

Ara Barmakian, president and chief executive officer of Barmakian Jewelers and a lifelong summer resident of Oak Bluffs, died March 19 after a brief illness. He was 77.

Born at home in Cambridge to Armenian immigrants and speaking no English until he started in the Watertown public schools, Mr. Barmakian quickly demonstrated a keen intelligence and an aptitude for all things mechanical, as well as hard work. Planning a career in engineering - thanks to his Vineyard summers, he wanted to design and build boats - he was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950. However, his father's poor health and early death intervened. With no special affinity for jewelry - or, for that matter, business - Mr. Barmakian found himself the owner of a small shop in the jeweler's building in Boston and a shoebox of inventory

In partnership with his younger brothers Vahan and Diran, who would eventually join him, Mr. Barmakian learned by necessity - and growing interest - all aspects of the business, from gemology to metallurgy, to design and manufacture, to marketing and sales. His work would bring him throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, where associates quickly became friends, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu and Buddhist alike. At home he sponsored into this country uncounted immigrants from around the world, craftsmen primarily, giving them work and access to the American way of life.

Guided by the simple tenets of respect, fairness, honesty and fiscal responsibility, Mr. Barmakian nurtured Barmakian Jewelers into a force on the local and, eventually, the national and international retail scene. In addition, he was president of the Armenian Jewelers Association, an influential international organization, and a recipient of its lifetime achievement award and a mentor figure to scores of jewelers and businesspeople across Europe and the United States.

Meanwhile, Mr. Barmakian maintained an abiding love for the Vineyard, in particular Oak Bluffs. He spent boyhood summers working at the Boston House on Circuit avenue, owned then by his uncle Jerry Barmakian, and sleeping in its attic. Whenever circumstance allowed he sailed a disprized little Weescott sloop that he bought and rehabilitated himself. In 1946 Mr. Barmakian's parents, Levon and Hripsime, bought a stately Victorian house on Nantucket avenue a few steps from the water, where the family spent many happy summers until it burned to the ground in 1960. To accommodate their growing families, Mr. Barmakian and his brothers then built the house currently on the site. In recent years the three brothers built for their children and grandchildren - numbering now more than 30 - a compound on Naushon avenue on property they bought from Sen. Edward Brooke in 1984. Improvements to the property were an ongoing pleasure for Mr. Barmakian.

"Ara was always working, even when we were kids," remembered Tom Ashley, a Waban Park and Belmont neighbor and friend of more than 60 years. "He was always looking for ways to make things just a little bit better. But he loved the water. And he sure looked happy at the tiller of that Hobie Cat and, way back, that rickety little Weescott of his. And he was good, too. He could handle a boat."

Mr. Barmakian's daughter Gail, a Vineyard attorney, said: "My father was man of ambition and vision who succeeded in attaining the high goals he set for himself through perseverance and hard work, yet managing to enjoy life and family along the way. He loved Friday evening swims and weekend construction projects, afternoons at State Beach with his grandchildren, visiting childhood friends, evening walks along Circuit avenue and chats with local businesspeople. He cared deeply about Oak Bluffs and was always interest in its evolution."

Mr. Barmakian was noted for his levelheaded and unassuming manner, his quick and facile mind, his pragmatic sensibilities and warm regard for people from every walk of life. Everyone was of interest to him, every experience an opportunity to learn. Constitutionally compelled to be beneficial, he saw what needed to be done and did it.

Mr. Barmakian is survived by the former Natalie Gazoorian of Worcester, his wife of 54 years; his daughters Karen Herosian of Belmont, Gail Barmakian of Oak Bluffs and Janice McCullough of Sudbury; his son Ara Barmakian Jr. of Belmont; 11 grandchildren, and his brothers, Diran and Vahan.