Albert Gayzagian; inspiration for both blind, sighted
Boston.com, January 24, 2010
By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff
In first grade at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Albert Gayzagian learned to read and write in Braille, and more than 70 years later, the excitement was still fresh.
“I was in the washroom in our cottage and I can still remember jumping up and down and saying over and over again, ‘I’m learning to read, I’m learning to read,’ ’’ he said in a 2005 interview as part of an oral history of the school. “I guess I must have picked up the idea that it was a great and important thing to do, and I remember it to this day.’’
Using that first breakthrough as a foundation, he blazed trails for the sightless in the workplace and on the boards of organizations. Mr. Gayzagian, who died Monday, was 83 and had lived in Watertown nearly all his life.
“Al Gayzagian is one of the most truly extraordinary people I’ve ever encountered,’’ said Steven M. Rothstein, president of the Perkins School in Watertown. “No other person that I can think of has had such depth and range of impact on so many blindness organizations over such a long period of time.’’
In 1976, Mr. Gayzagian became the first blind trustee to serve on the board of the Perkins School. He served for 30 years before retiring as an honorary trustee, and also was on the boards of organizations such as the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and the National Braille Press.
Entering the workplace was another matter. Mr. Gayzagian graduated from Harvard, only to find few work opportunities for those without sight. He finally landed a job as a typist at John Hancock Insurance, transcribing tapes from dictation machines.
During the next 39 years, he rose to become a senior official at John Hancock, overseeing corporate planning. Along the way, he eagerly welcomed and mastered each device that allowed him to open more doors in a world run by those who could see.
“Persons who are blind like me or have other disabilities are clearly better off than they were 50 years ago,’’ he wrote in 1998 for the 50th anniversary report of his Harvard class. “Technological advances, public education efforts, and legislation have enabled us to become more vital and accepted parts of society.’’
But Mr. Gayzagian’s life was more than just the sum of computer programs that allowed him to use the Internet and succeeding generations of Braille products that made reading and writing physically easier.
“He was a man with a visual disability, and back then, when he was first trying to work, the people in the working world thought, ‘You’re disabled, so you can’t do this job,’’’ said his daughter, Cindy, of Watertown. “Well he proved them wrong. He pushed through that barrier and worked his way up from a typist clerk to a top-notch administrator.’’
Albert Kagham Gayzagian was born in Boston, where his Armenian immigrant parents lived in Dorchester. His middle name was from his mother’s brother, who was killed during the genocide, beginning in 1915, in which more than 1 million Armenians died.
In an interview with Kate Crohan, who teaches at the Perkins School, Mr. Gayzagian said his parents initially didn’t realize the extent of his visual impairment when they noticed he was squinting all the time. They brought him to an eye specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he had six surgeries.
He was 5 when he first went to the Perkins School. Another 5-year-old at the school was Harriet Elizabeth Murby, who was known as Betty. Their paths would cross again decades later and she would become his wife.
Mr. Gayzagian stayed at the school during the week and went home on weekends. His mother decided the family should live closer to the school and the Gayzagians moved to Watertown, which became Mr. Gayzagian’s home for the rest of his life.
Lessons at the Perkins School ranged from academic subjects to sports and music, which would become a significant part of his life. Mr. Gayzagian learned to play the piano at the school, and also played the clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone.
“My dad had a wonderful passion for music,’’ his daughter said. “He would play lots of different classical pieces that he loved, and we grew up with a lot of sing-alongs. We’d have parties and he’d pull out his music - it was a real good time.’’
By the time Mr. Gayzagian was in eighth grade, his teachers realized he needed more of a challenge, so he transferred to town schools and graduated from Watertown High School.
In high school, he relied on friends to get him around. In college, he navigated Harvard Yard and classrooms with help from Jennie, his first guide dog.
Some textbooks were in Braille at high school and Harvard. For the rest, he relied on friends as readers. His notes in class, meanwhile, were so detailed that studying with friends who read to him became a reciprocal academic relationship. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1948 and a master’s in English in 1949.
Humor also helped him get by. In his sixth Harvard class report, he wrote self-deprecatingly about trying to make a go of it as a writer after graduation, penning short stories and writing for hours each day.
“I passed three years proving that this thankless generation was not prepared to recognize the greatest literary genius of our age,’’ he joked about his efforts.
Mr. Gayzagian ran into Betty Murby again at a conference. They married in 1964 and a few years later became the first blind couple in Massachusetts to adopt children who could see, according to the Perkins School.
“They were just two people who definitely belonged together, and it was a lovely relationship,’’ their daughter said. Betty Gayzagian died in 2003.
Since retiring from John Hancock in 1991, Mr. Gayzagian continued to serve on boards and ran once, unsuccessfully, for Town Council in Watertown. With adaptive equipment, he became so adept at computers and the Internet that friends with sight sought his advice.
“I looked to him as an example of how to conduct myself,’’ said his son, Michael, of Watertown, who gave the eulogy at Mr. Gayzagian’s memorial service Thursday.
“My dad’s achievements encouraged us to believe in ourselves,’’ he said in the eulogy. “His advice secured us and gave us comfort, and his insight made us think beyond what was in front of us.’’
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
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