M. Victoria Kazan Endowment Funded with $358,000 Gift

With the current talk of budget cuts throughout the whole of the California State University system, it is quite reassuring for the Armenian Studies Program at CSU Fresno to have gracious benefactors. These budget cuts weigh on the minds of professors and administration alike, but from within the Armenian Studies program, things are “looking up.”

In 1998, it was announced that Mr. Henry S. Khanzadian Kazan and his wife Victoria would be making their second sizable donation to the Armenian Studies Program at CSU Fresno. This endowment came in a different form than most: a house in East Quoque, Long Island, New York, which was given to the Armenian Studies Program with the understanding the Kazans would be able to continue to live in it until their deaths.

However, Mr. Kazan, who lives alone in June Beach, Florida and Long Island, decided to buy the house back from the University and give it to members of his family. In September, the house was purchased by Mr. Kazan in an all cash deal at the current selling price. The proceeds, $358,245 net after fees and commissions as well as five years of maintenance paid by the University, has been deposited in the M. Victoria Karagozian Kazan Endowment for Armenian Studies.
This represents by far the largest single gift ever to the Armenian Studies Program, even larger than Mr. Kazan’s $320,000 funding of the Henry S. Khanzadian Kazan endowed Visiting Professorship in Armenian Studies. The new endowment is to be used, according to the agreement of 1998, in three ways: to provide scholarship funds, to finance the M. Victoria Karagozian Monograph and Lecture Series, and to help underwrite the administrative and operating expenses of the Armenian Studies Program.

The endowment is named in the memory of Henry Kazan’s wife, Victoria, who passed away in October 1997. Mr. and Mrs. Kazan, who have been long-time supporters of the Armenian Studies Program at CSU Fresno, have made the two largest contributions to the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State. Though life-long residents of New York and Florida, the Kazans chose Fresno State over east coast universities because of the CSUF’s dynamic Armenian Studies Program.

Mr. Kazan’s endowments to the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State stem from his desire to encourage the scholarship of college students. Mr. Kazan, after coming to America, received his bachelor’s degree in History from New York University, and he then received his law degree from St. John’s University. He has said that, if he had the choice, Mr. Kazan would have become a history professor. Mr. Kazan has three nieces and nephews within the academic field of social science and humanities, all with PhDs and all dedicated to teaching and research. Mrs. Kazan was also a great proponent of scholarship, and this second endowment has made it possible to further encourage both research and publications in Armenian studies here at Fresno State.

The Armenian Studies Program is grateful to the Kazans for this latest endowment because its establishment will serve to encourage greater scholarship among students and faculty alike, while remembering one of the Armenian Studies Program’s long-time supporters. Henry Kazan has promised Fresno State President Dr. John Welty that he will come to Fresno for the opening of the new Save Mart Center in October of this year to celebrate his 97th birthday.