New Books by Robert Melikian

2nd generation Armenian documents Arizona history

Robert A. Milikian, 53, a graduate of ASU, manages his family's historic 1928 San Carlos Hotel, at Central and Monroe streets, downtown Phoenix. In 2009, he produced a photo history of the hotel and his family who bought the building in 1973, which has 128 rooms in 7 stories. The hotel has a Hollywood-star sidewalk. This year he expanded his documentation to all old buildings in Phoenix, providing an excellent photo-history story. 

Both books are part of the "Images of America:" series:
  • Hotel San Carlos, 2009. History of a building and the family that saved it. ... the first Phoenix hotel with cooling.
  • Vanishing Phoenix, 2010, 128 pages.
    Photo album of landmark buildings torn down, some preserved.
His father Gregory Melikian , 85, was born in New York City, the son of parents who had fled the Armenian massacres. He became a laywer and judge, then real estate investor. His mother Emma was born in Persia (Iran) to an Armenian family that had earlier fled the Soviet Union.


   

Hotel San Carlos Promotion 2009
Vanishing Phoenix Promotion 2010
  • VanishingPhoenix.com
  • Facebook.com
  • Jun 2  — Phoenix City Hall, assembly rooms A & B, 200 Washington St. — Noon
  • Jul 23 — PHX11 (City TV) Program Schedules — 9am, 6:30pm. 2:30am
  • Aug 19 — MacAlpines Soda Fountain, 2303 N 7th St., Phoenix — 5:30pm - 8pm,
  • Sep 1 — ASU Melikian Center, Coors 4433 —11:45am - 1pm

Vanishing Phoenix News 2010

[Below reproduced in case it goes off-line]

Melikians ... Among those Honored at Founders' Day

The Arizona State University Alumni Association will honor faculty members and alumni involved in solving challenges with world-changing consequences at its Founders’ Day Awards Dinner, set for 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 24 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, 2400 E. Missouri Ave., Phoenix.
The award ceremony has been a signature event for the university for decades, and it honors individuals who exemplify the spirit of the founders of the Territorial Normal School of Arizona, ASU’s predecessor institution, who received their charter from the Thirteenth Territorial Legislature on March 7, 1885.
 
 “We will continue our partnership with the ASU Foundation at the 2010 Founders’ Day festivities related to the Challenges Project at ASU,” said Christine K. Wilkinson, ASU Alumni Association president. “The faculty, staff, alumni and ASU supporters we will be honoring are immersed in resolving the most pressing issues of our time—sustainability, education, economic security, and much more.”
...

Honorees: Gregory and Emma Melikian
 
Gregory and Emma Melikian are Phoenix civic leaders whose commitment to urban development, historic preservation, culture and the arts has made a profound impact upon the quality of life in Arizona. They represent the values of civic engagement and excellence that rest at the heart of the New American University.

Gregory Melikian was born in New York City, the son of parents who had fled the Armenian massacres during World War I. Following military service during World War II, he practiced real estate law before assuming a position as a civil judge in the New York City municipal court system.
 
Emma Melikian was born in Persia (modern-day Iran) to an Armenian family that had earlier fled the Soviet Union. She eventually settled in New York City. She became founding president of Thank You America, a charitable organization of immigrant Americans offering educational support to needy children.
 
The Melikians moved to Phoenix during a period of unprecedented development for the metro area. Mr. Melikian, who worked for the commercial real estate firm Great Western Realty, was integral to the restoration of more than a dozen historic properties in the state during the 1960s, including the landmark Hotel San Carlos in downtown Phoenix.
 
The couple has four children—Robert, Richard, James, and Ramona—all of whom attended Arizona State University. Beginning in the 1970s, the Melikian family began a pattern of support for ASU that includes endowment of the Melikian Center and its Critical Languages Institute, one of the nation’s leading international research and training centers for regional study of Russia, Eurasia and Eastern Europe.