Gazarian

Dr. Jean Bernard Gazarian

On Monday, 18 January 2016, the oldest friend of the ODU Model United Nations, Jean Bernard Gazarian, died at the age of 93. It was Dan Frank and Pam Raley from ODU, pioneering alumni, who boldly approached him in 1982 on the floor of the UN General Assembly, where Gazarian was presiding as Director of General Assembly Affairs, and asked if he could be tempted to come to Norfolk. He came to our conference in 1983, starting a relationship that last until his death in 2016. The result was a continuous source of inspiration for our students and our work. The relationship extended as ODU alumni moved, bringing Gazarian to Bentley University, in Waltham, Massachusetts, and many other model UN conferences elsewhere.

It was a source of consternation for ODU, that after awarding him an honorary doctorate in 1986, we had little more to offer him. But he never tired of offering himself, coming here and meeting our groups in New York. He was a loyal friend of our program, the vital connection between our world of education through simulation and the reality of the UN. His thoughts remain an enduring source of inspiration and clarity.

Here are a few videos and articles that give a sense of his work, his beliefs about the international civil service, and the UN system. Also a few good tales from his seventy-year career at the UN:

• Video: 'The Evolution of the UN since 1946' (2009)
• Video: 'Jean Gazarian on Resolution Ambiguity' (2010)
• 'Passing of Mr. Jean Gazarian' UNITAR, 2016
• Obituary: 'Remembering Jean Gazarian, a witness to UN history', UN News Centre, 28 January 2016

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