Dr. Garabed Belian Dies

Following the loss of his father, all family responsibility fell on Garabed’s shoulders; he took care of his mother and sisters wherever he moved.
His foreign degree in dentistry from a French University did not allow him to practice his profession in the US.  At the same time, there were no openings for foreign students to be admitted to a dental school in the US.  Therefore, he decided to expand his education by enrolling in the Chemistry Department of Northwestern University in Chicago, while working at the chemistry lab.  Short of one semester from obtaining his master’s degree in chemistry, an opening was available and he was admitted to the University of Detroit’s School of Dentistry, from which he graduated in 1960. Therefore, once again, he was qualified to practice dentistry.

Upon graduation, he opened his dental practice in downtown Detroit (Vernor Highway). In 1985, he opened his second practice in Troy, next to his art gallery, which he managed with his wife, Zabel. The Belian Art Center became a beacon of arts, exhibitions and concerts in the Troy area.
Although he excelled in his dental practice, the profession seemed too limited for his ambitions and dreams. He had a side real-estate business and developed his hobbies of music and art to a professional level, acquiring his music degree in 1968 from the Detroit Institute of musical arts (violin) and then earning a master’s degree in art history (1975) from Wayne State University.

His interest and expertise in the arts helped him build an outstanding collection of paintings and sculptures, featuring ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and African, as well as modern and avant-garde art — an eclectic collection of exquisite museum quality and taste.

As an art connoisseur and art historian he was a sought-after lecturer on almost all topics in fine arts. He was also fluent in six languages.
In 1969, Dr. Belian’s life had a lucky turn and entered a new phase with love at first sight, when he met Zabel Sapsezian, a nutritionist, a child psychologist and artist in her own right, in Beirut.  Their idyllic love and subsequent marriage in Lebanon is like a page from a romantic novel.  They married and settled in Bloomfield Hills.  They had three children; Ara, Lisa and Raffi, who following in their parents’ footsteps, earned professional degrees.

Three years ago, Dr. Belian was in a life-threatening, head-on crash with a semi-truck, which confined him to a hospital bed for five months.  Thanks to his determination and will to live, he miraculously survived through the loving care and dedication of his wife and children. He was not that lucky this time when he entered Beaumont Hospital for a relatively routine  surgical procedure and succumbed on December 14.

Dr. Garabed Belian had a larger-than-life stature in the Detroit Armenian community.  For the last 31 years, he chaired the Fine Arts Committee of St. John’s Armenian Church, where his wife Zabel was also active. Through his organizational skill, his erudite lectures and through his broad connections with the world art community, he brought the awareness of fine arts to the Armenian community, which was enriched through their acquisitions at the Fine Arts Committee exhibitions.