User:EtienneDolet/Robert Papazyan

Robert B. Papazian (

65, of Bangkok, president and chairman of Memco Inc., Bangkok, a telecommunicantions and trading firm, died Wednesday at Riks Hospital, Oslo, Norway. He was the husband of Helen (Gasparian) Papazian.

Of Armenian descent, Papazyan was born in Constantinople, Turkey. He was the son of the late Vahram and Annette (Egavian) Papazian, he lived on Crete before coming to this country in 1952 and settled in Providence. At that time, he worked for the U.S. Government Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., and in 1959 was transferred to Saigon. In 1963, he became a vice president of ITT and worked for its Far East Limited Division for 20 years before retiring in 1983.

While in Thailand, he was awarded the Elephant Pin in 1984 by the King of Thailand, an award for service to that country. He was president of Chaine de Rotisseri, an international gourmet society founded in 1786. He was a prominent Armenian layman, and traveled extensively throughout the Far East visiting Armenian communities.

Besides his wife he leaves a son, Robert B. Papazian Jr. in Switzerland; two daughters, Mrs. Annette Ross of Westfield, Mass., and Miss Diane Papazian of Bangkok; a brother, Harold Papazian of Cape Cod, Mass.; two sisters, Mrs. Diane Moaud of Beirut, Lebanon, Mrs. Yolanda Dimidjian of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and a grandson.

A funeral service will be held tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church, Jefferson Street, Providence. Another service will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. from the Najarian Funeral Home, 1447 Westminster St., Providence, followed by burial in Swan Point Cemetery, Providence.