RIDGEFIELD, N.J. – Dr. Haikaz Martiros Grigorian, distinguished physician, and psychiatrist, Armenian-American community leader, and expert on the psychosocial effects of the Armenian Genocide, passed away peacefully at home on January 17 at the age of 90 after a long illness, surrounded by his family.
Born in Abadan, Iran, on November 18, 1927 to survivors of the Armenian Genocide, he emigrated to the United States in 1949. Dr. Grigorian received his undergraduate degree from Boston University, with graduate and medical degrees from Columbia University and George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Wa
shington Hospital Center and his psychoanalytic training, from 1964 to 1974, at the Washington (DC) Psychoanalytic Institute. He was a practicing psychiatrist and a professor of psychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC, and in NJ – both at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School (Newark) and at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (Piscataway). At UMDNJ he long served as Director of Residency Training and as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, mentoring hundreds of medical students and residents.
He held numerous professional and visiting posts and fellowships, including Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association where he served on the Committee on Human Rights; President of the New Jersey Psychiatric Association; and member of the New Jersey Psychoanalytic Association. He participated in the White House Conference on Ethnicity and Mental Health in 1978 and was a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging in 1981. Dr. Grigorian worked on one of three transcultural research projects on drug addiction for the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Tehran, Iran in 1973-1974.
He, along with colleague Dr. Levon Z. Boyajian, delivered groundbreaking research on the “Psychosocial Sequelae of the Armenian Genocide” at the International Conference on Holocaust and Genocide in Tel Aviv in 1982. He was the recipient for the prestigious Bruno Lima Award from the American Psychiatric Association for his disaster-relief work after the Armenian earthquake, for which he also received a US Fulbright Fellowship. He was a member of the Psychiatric Outreach Program for Armenia since 1989 and Chairman of the Medical Board for AGBU Medical Outreach for Earthquake Victims from 1990 to 1991. With years of devotion to the Armenian Community, he contributed his professional expertise to the Armenian diaspora experience on many levels, making use of opportunities to introduce Armenian socio-cultural aspects to the world professional community.
In 1994, President Levon Ter-Petrosian of Armenia bestowed upon him a special recognition for humanitarian services. In 1995 he received the Armenian Students Association Sarafian Award for Good Citizenship and recognition from the Armenian American Society for Studies on Stress and Genocide.
