Laguna couple’s dream is realized

Cindy Frazier

Jack and Mary Bayramian lived their dream -- a beach house in Laguna,

so close to the sand that their deck was used as a judging spot for

the city’s annual Brooks Street surfing classic.

The retired pair enjoyed 30 productive years in Laguna, buying

properties, fixing them up, renting them and selling them at a

profit, according to their nephew and executor, Don Barsumian.

The now-deceased couple -- a phone company technician and a high

school art teacher -- are now allowing others to live their dreams by

creating the largest-ever scholarship fund at California State

University, Northridge.

The Bayramians’ bequest of $7.3 million -- their entire estate --

is the largest ever for Cal State Northridge, university officials

said. It even tops a gift from movie mogul Michael Eisner.

The fund will go to create the Bayramian Family Scholarship Fund.

Earnings from $5 million of the endowment will be go to Mary and Jack

Bayramian Presidential Scholars, providing $5,000 and other

assistance to students selected in a competitive process.

Earnings from the remaining $2.3 million will go to Mary Bayramian

Arts Scholars and will also become the largest-yet donation toward a

1,000-seat Valley Performing Arts Center.

In return, the Bayramians were honored recently by the trustees of

the California State University system, which voted to rename the

Student Services Building at Cal State Northridge after them.

Barsumian says his aunt and uncle “would be very proud” that their

name will become a permanent part of the university where Mary got

her degree in 1963. The bequest had been planned since 1985, he said.

“Mary was very people-oriented, and education was very important

to her,” Barsumian said. “It’s something we all should take pride in.

They came from immigrant parents, from humble beginnings, and

achieved great success by being prudent, and being in the right

place. Nothing was given to them.”

Mary and Jack were both born in 1921 -- she on Aug. 4 and he on

Aug. 11 -- to Armenian immigrants who fled Turkey to escape

persecution. They met while attending Hamilton High School in West

Los Angeles and married in 1942.

Jack served in the Navy during World War II, and after the war the

couple moved to the booming San Fernando Valley. By the 1950s, Mary

began attending college, and eventually obtained an art degree and a

teaching credential at San Fernando Valley State College -- which

would later become Cal State Northridge -- after attending Los

Angeles City College and Pierce College.

Jack worked for 20 years as a technician with the Pacitic

Telephone and Telegraph Co., after starting out as a vacuum cleaner

salesman and owner of a Van Nuys electrical repair shop.

After getting her degrees, Mary worked for about 12 years as an

art teacher at San Fernando High School, retiring in 1971 at the age

of 50.

Jack also retired at that young age, and -- after enjoying owning

a Malibu beach home -- the couple decided to spend their retirement

years in Laguna.

“They cashed out and invested in Laguna Beach,” Barsumian said.

“Her dream was to walk out of her home and put her feet in the sand.”

The couple owned at least one commercial property in addition to

residential buildings.

Over the years, they bought several Laguna homes, fixing them up

themselves and selling them at a profit.

Their last home was known as the staging-area for the famous

Brooks Street Surf Classic, known locally as the oldest continuous

surfing contest in the world. In existence since 1955, it draws more

than 100 contestants, who must be Laguna Beach residents.

Ron Lutz, a recreation supervisor for the city, says he

appreciated the cooperation of the Bayramians in keeping the contest

going.

Because it is impossible to predict when the waves will be right

for the contest, residents of the area must be prepared for an influx

of surfers -- and a public address system installed in front of their

homes -- at any time. The waiting period starts in June, and the

contest can take place up until October, Lutz says.

“We put a sign up, and the surfers know by word of mouth,” he

said. The event runs for two days and draws up to 500 spectators.

“They [the Bayramians] were staunch supporters of the contest, and

they never complained about the noise,” Lutz said. “For several

years, we used their deck for the judging, until we moved to the top

of the bluff.

“They were wonderful people.”

During their Laguna years, the couple also traveled widely, and

their beach home was filled with treasures from their trips, their

nephew says.

Mary, an excellent cook, authored several cookbooks and also

enjoyed entering her recipes in contests, her nephew said. She also

painted and designed her own jewelry, and was an avid golfer who

played well into her 70s.

Their only son, Ronald, died in 1998 of cancer.

When Jack became stricken with Parkinson’s Disease, Mary cared for

him for 10 years at home. When she finally decided -- at her family’s

insistence -- that he would be better off in a skilled nursing

facility, she died shortly after he moved out, succumbing to a stroke

on November 24, 2002, her nephew said.

Jack lived until January 29 of this year, and the gift to the

University was announced in July.

The university’s prior largest cash gift came from The Eisner

Foundation in 2002, when Disney Chief Executive Michael D. Eisner and

his wife, Jane, gave $7 million to create a new teacher-training

program at the campus.

Cal State Northridge President Jolene Koester praised the gift,

and the couple who gave it.

“This remarkable gift from Mary and Jack Bayramian will empower

the university to support outstanding students,” Koester said. “The

Bayramians, who were devoted to each other during more than 60 years

of marriage, now have extended that caring to improve the lives of

hundreds of our students.”