Zaven Mahdesian, longtime LI educator, dead at 95

Zaven Misak Mahdesian knew the value of a good education.

The child of Armenian immigrants, he worked his way through college, a master's degree and a doctorate, and had a hand in shepherding some Long Island schools and districts through the suburban growth of the 1950s and 1960s.

Though his long educational career included serving as a professor and a dean at St. John's University, his last job before full retirement was teaching math at St. Anthony's High School in South Huntington.

Mahdesian, of Huntington, died on Friday. He was 95.

"My father, being a child of the Depression said - and I'll never forget it - 'the one thing that parents can provide for their children, that can never be taken away, is education,' " said his son, Raymond C. Mahdesian, of Dix Hills.

Mahdesian was born in Troy on June 24, 1914 and was raised in the Armenian section of town, where he didn't learn English until the age of 4, his son said. Both of Mahdesian's parents, Christians who sought religious freedom in United States, worked in the shirt factories, but his father managed to save enough money to later open a grocery store.

Committed to his schooling, Mahdesian earned a bachelor's degree from Albany State College, paying for his studies with various jobs such as delivering groceries and selling shoes, his son said. His first job out of college was teaching math at Greenport High School, where he met his wife, Mabelle Schuler. During the summers, he returned to Albany State to finish his master's in education administration.

The couple moved to Great Neck, where Mahdesian taught high school math until he took a job with the Army in World War II.

He became an expert on the breech mechanism of the 155-mm howitzer and worked in arsenals in Watervliet, N.Y., and San Francisco, said his son, who is a former English department chairman at Memorial Junior High School in South Huntington. He is now the police chief of Asharoken Village.

Mahdesian's career as an administrator began in Troy, to which he returned after the war. He taught high school math and became principal of schools No. 1 and No. 14 while commuting to New York University to earn his PhD in education administration. In 1954, he became the first principal of Carle Place High School and, three years later, the first superintendent of the Half Hollow Hills School District.

"He really got the district through the growth years," his son said. "The schools were built while he was there and he was instrumental in shaping the district."

Though he retired as superintendent in 1968, Mahdesian continued his career, taking a position as a professor of education administration and supervision and later as a dean of summer sessions. He and his wife, Mabelle, who had a son and a daughter, also fulfilled their dreams of seeing the world by opening the Travel Fair travel agency in Islip. Among the places they visited was Armenia, the homeland of his parents, in 1980.

Mahdesian was active in the Masons for 70 years.

Besides his son, survivors include two grandchildren, Nora and Bryan Mahdesian. He was predeceased by his wife, in March, 2006 at the age of 100, and his daughter, Janet E. Mahdesian.

Visiting will be Tuesday from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the A.L. Jacobsen Funeral Home in Huntington Station. Masonic services will held at 7:45 p.m. and religious services at 8 p.m. Burial will be private.