Handwritten notes, more than fifty years later...

In 1953, Mihran Kassarjian sent this note to his daughter, Marie. It's amazing how much personality can come through in a little, short, handwritten note. Even so many years later, can't you just read the affection on the back of this photo? (The front has been pasted below it so you can see his smiling face, too.) 

Communication between people has changed so much over the time. Distance is shortened by email and facebook and many, many other impersonal typed-up forms. There's something so much more personal and warm about handwriting. No one can copy the way that you form letters on a page. It's uniquely yours... just like it was uniquely his. 

Mihran Kassarjian was a man of God, and my great-grandfather. I wish we could have met... but reading little notes that he left on the back of photos makes me feel close to him. It's obvious that he cared about his own children, grandchildren, and I'm sure his great-grandchildren would have been no exception. 

Brief Life History of Henry Sarkis Badeer

                I was born in January, 1914, in Mersine (Now called Icel), by the Mediterranean Sea in Eastern Turkey. Parents were Sarkis Badeer and Persape Koundakjian, both Armenians. The family survived the First World War miraculously. I was a baby in 1915, with two older brothers, when the order came to be exiled (all Armenians in Turkey). My mother thought that I would never make it. In the meantime, my father being a physician had treated the eyes of a Turkish farmer at the outskirts of the city. He was very pleased with my father, both as a physician and as a good person. He had the bright idea of suggesting to the Turkish Exile Authorities that instead of perishing as a doctor, they would do better by taking him to the Turkish Army and letting him serve the troops during the War. So they did. We survived the War (1914-1918) and returned to Mersine at the end of the War.

In 1924, we got permission to move to Beirut, Lebanon. The intention was to settle there. I grew up in Beirut, first in an Armenian High School for Boys. Then went to the Preparatory School of the American University of Beirut graduating in 1930. This was followed by two years in College (Freshman and Sophomore) and I was accepted to enter the Medical School of the American University. Studied Medicine five years and graduated in 1938. I was lucky to get a job to teach Physiology (1938). Taught physiology to pharmacy students and lab to medical students. In 1939 the Second World War started and in early forties the chairman of the Dept. (Dr. C.W. Hampel) returned to the U.S. and I was alone to teach medical students. In the early thirties, we became citizens of Lebanon and my citizenship record for some unknown reason, stated my birthday to be 1915 (hence my official birthday is 1915).

In 1948, my chairman (Dr. J.O. Pinkston) arranged a Rockefeller Fellowship for me to spend a year of research at Harvard Medical School. Before leaving for the U.S., I got married to Marie Kassarjian from Aleppo, Syria. The research at Harvard was under the guidance of Dr. John Pappenheimer (the effect of cooling the blood on the circulation in the hind-leg of the cat).

On returning to Beirut in 1949, I started research on the dog heart in the heart-lung preparation on Starling. In 1956, I became the Chairman of the Department and in 1957 I took a sabbatical at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. In 1965, I decided to move to the U.S. as a Visiting Prof. at the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. under Dr. Chandler Brooks (1965-67). In 1967 I accepted a position as Prof. of Physiology at Creighton Medical Students. Also taught dental students and Nurses. I retired as emeritus Prof. in 1991. My publications are related to heart and circulation (total 82) and a textbook on Cardiovascular Physiology.

We have two sons and ten grandchildren, two of whom are married. One great-grandson, 2 years old.