Samuel V. Goekjian ’52 constructed his first “house” on American soil at Syracuse College and he by no means left his alma mater behind, although he constructed a unprecedented profession in worldwide regulation and finance that spanned the globe. After graduating with a level in historical past from the Maxwell College of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Goekjian remained an engaged alumnus, a trusted advisor to management, and an lively board trustee and philanthropist—all in service to his alma mater. He created a legacy that may contact Orange lives for generations to return. Goekjian handed away on Dec. 9, 2022, on the age of 95.
Samuel V. Goekjian ’52
“I’ve all the time thought of myself a Maxwell man,” Goekjian as soon as stated. It’s the place he “realized not solely concerning the rights of citizenship, but in addition of the obligations that accompany that citizenship.” He took what he realized and made an actual distinction on the earth and within the lives of lots of of Syracuse college students.
Goekjian’s father, Vahram, was an Armenian journalist who escaped the bloodshed in Turkey on the finish of World Battle I. He married one other Armenian refugee in Greece, and emigrated to Ethiopia to construct a enterprise and lift their two sons, finally sending them to an American boarding faculty on the island of Cyprus. Later, Goekjian returned to Ethiopia to work on the Ministry of Schooling, the place certainly one of his tasks was to put college students in British and American universities. That’s when he was introduced with a possibility that might change his life—a four-year scholarship to Syracuse College. He arrived in 1948, as one of many few worldwide college students on campus.
On the College, Goekjian demonstrated his numerous expertise, pursuits and management: he was a three-sport letter winner in soccer, monitor and tennis (acknowledged by the Varsity Membership of Syracuse College Athletics 40 years later as a 1996 LetterWinner of Distinction); he belonged to the Phi Kappa Alpha Honor Society, the Orange Key and was a Phi Beta Kappa; he was elected president of his junior class, the talk society and the lads’s pupil authorities in his senior yr. He graduated magna cum laude in 1952 with a bachelor’s diploma in historical past.
After commencement, Goekjian joined the U.S. Military and served as a mortar gunner within the Korean Battle. Following two years of fight service, he attended Harvard Legislation College and earned a regulation diploma in 1957.
Fluent in seven languages and having lived in 4 continents, he navigated the world of worldwide regulation and enterprise with ease, spending the following 5 a long time working for regulation companies, companies or consulting companies with worldwide places of work. At Surrey & Morse, he rose to managing accomplice, overseeing its finance committee, worldwide arbitration division and places of work in Paris and Beirut. For almost ten years, he was chair and CEO of Consolidated Westway Group Inc., a world buying and selling and agro-industrial group. He was previous chair and CEO of Intracon Associates LLC, a world enterprise consulting agency in Washington, D.C., and managing accomplice of Kile Park Reed & Houtteman, which makes a speciality of mental property, web know-how and worldwide commerce.
He additionally served as a senior guide to numerous companies on the United Nations and was a member of the Council on International Relations. The writer of papers on worldwide regulation and finance, Goekjian taught on the George Washington College Legislation College, the Georgetown College Legislation Heart and Georgetown’s Worldwide Legislation Institute. He additionally taught a course in worldwide financial growth at Maxwell as an adjunct professor of worldwide relations from 1998-2003.
Goekjian served his alma mater in numerous methods. He was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 1997 and was a voting trustee till 2010, serving on the Educational Affairs and the Enrollment and the Scholar Expertise committees. He had the excellence of being one of many longest-serving members of the advisory board of his beloved Maxwell College, which acknowledged his service with the Horizon Award in 2005. He obtained the College’s highest alumni honor, the George Arents Award, in 2009 for his excellence in worldwide enterprise and regulation.
Making certain a legacy of his love for the College and dedication to worldwide affairs, he established the Samuel V. Goekjian Endowment in World Affairs. His philanthropy supported lots of of summer time journey analysis grants for Maxwell college students doing worldwide area analysis, offering college students with the chance to collect data and information that might place them to raised compete for future analysis funding. Every summer time, the fund offers greater than a dozen grants, awarded via Maxwell’s Moynihan Institute of World Affairs. Recipients have used the cash to assist with airfare, translators and primary bills.
In celebration of his ninetieth birthday, Goekjian dedicated one other $250,000 to the fund that had already exceeded $1 million. In a 2018 Maxwell College information article concerning the celebration, one of many award recipients stated, “that is the kind of monetary and mental generosity that positively alters the course of individuals’s lives.”
On the time of his demise, he lived in Washington, D.C. He’s survived by his youngsters Kenneth, Christopher, Peter and Lisa, and 6 grandchildren.