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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Dr. | ||||||
| 4 | Narbey Khachaturian of Philo, who passed away on May 14, 2009; | ||||||
| 5 | and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, Dr. Khachaturian was born January 12, 1924, a son | ||||||
| 7 | of Moses and Takouhi Khachaturian; he married Margaret Miles on | ||||||
| 8 | January 26, 1952, in Akron, Ohio;
after being accepted at the | ||||||
| 9 | University of Illinois as a civil engineering undergraduate, he | ||||||
| 10 | left his home in Tehran and embarked for the United States on | ||||||
| 11 | December 7, 1944; and | ||||||
| 12 | WHEREAS, Going from his home to San Pedro, California, | ||||||
| 13 | during wartime took him more than four months and necessitated | ||||||
| 14 | several delays and changes to his initial travel plans along | ||||||
| 15 | the way; during this time, he occupied himself by embarking on | ||||||
| 16 | a self-taught course in Chinese; and
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| 17 | WHEREAS, In the weeks following his arrival in California, | ||||||
| 18 | he made the cross-country trip to Champaign-Urbana by train; he | ||||||
| 19 | received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees in civil engineering | ||||||
| 20 | from the University of Illinois, working as a teaching | ||||||
| 21 | assistant, instructor, and graduate student under Professor T. | ||||||
| 22 | C. Shedd; he joined the department of civil engineering at the | ||||||
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| 1 | U of I as a faculty member in 1952 as an assistant professor, | ||||||
| 2 | and became full professor in 1960; and
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| 3 | WHEREAS, Professor Khachaturian held the part-time post of | ||||||
| 4 | assistant dean of engineering in the college of engineering in | ||||||
| 5 | 1979-80 and assumed the role of associate head of the | ||||||
| 6 | department of civil engineering in 1983, a post he held until | ||||||
| 7 | his retirement in 1989; he was the adviser to numerous | ||||||
| 8 | undergraduate and graduate students and the mentor of 18 | ||||||
| 9 | doctoral students; his first doctoral student, Fazlur Kahn, | ||||||
| 10 | went on to build the Sears Tower; and | ||||||
| 11 | WHEREAS, Dr. Khachaturian served as faculty adviser to Chi | ||||||
| 12 | Epsilon, the civil engineering honorary, and received the | ||||||
| 13 | American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Outstanding Teacher | ||||||
| 14 | Award twice; he authored or co-authored 25 formal technical | ||||||
| 15 | publications, including one textbook on pre-stressed concrete | ||||||
| 16 | design;
and | ||||||
| 17 | WHEREAS, Professor Khachaturian was very active in ASCE | ||||||
| 18 | throughout his career; he was a leader in the central Illinois | ||||||
| 19 | section, was a member of the Committee on Educational Research, | ||||||
| 20 | and the structural division Committee on Optimization of | ||||||
| 21 | Structures; he was one of the principal founders of the | ||||||
| 22 | Technical Council on Forensic Engineering in 1982 and served as | ||||||
| 23 | chair of its executive, education, and member education | ||||||
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| 1 | committees; and | ||||||
| 2 | WHEREAS, He was active in ACI and the American Society for | ||||||
| 3 | Engineering Education and was a member of NSPE; he was a strong | ||||||
| 4 | supporter of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois | ||||||
| 5 | as a director and as president; and | ||||||
| 6 | WHEREAS, His honors include the Epstein Award, the | ||||||
| 7 | Outstanding Teacher ASCE Student Chapter Award, the John Parmer | ||||||
| 8 | Award of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois, the | ||||||
| 9 | Halliburton Award for Engineering Education leadership, the | ||||||
| 10 | Harold T. Larsen Award of Chi Epsilon and the Lifetime | ||||||
| 11 | Achievement Award of the ASCE Illinois Section; and | ||||||
| 12 | WHEREAS, Recently Dr. Khachaturian took part in the Chi | ||||||
| 13 | Epsilon Induction Ceremonies with his U of I civil engineer | ||||||
| 14 | son, Jon, and his U of I civil engineer grandson, Matthew; in | ||||||
| 15 | all of his endeavors, Dr. Khachaturian demonstrated the highest | ||||||
| 16 | standards of professionalism and set professional standards of | ||||||
| 17 | excellence that serve as a lasting model for students and | ||||||
| 18 | faculty alike; and
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| 19 | WHEREAS, Dr. Khachaturian was raised in the Armenian | ||||||
| 20 | Orthodox Faith; and throughout his life was active in Christian | ||||||
| 21 | Ministries; and
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| 1 | WHEREAS, He is survived by his wife; his children, Greg | ||||||
| 2 | Khachaturian, Jon (Bobbi) Khachaturian, Mary (Bill) Thrift, | ||||||
| 3 | and Steve (Janet) Khachaturian; his grandchildren, Matthew | ||||||
| 4 | Khachaturian, Sara Khachaturian, Bethany Khachaturian, Michael | ||||||
| 5 | Thrift, David Thrift, Steven Thrift, Nathaniel Khachaturian, | ||||||
| 6 | Christian Khachaturian, Benjamin Khachaturian, and Grace | ||||||
| 7 | Khachaturian; and his siblings, Arek Khachaturian (Diane) and | ||||||
| 8 | Juliet Ter-Sarkissian; therefore, be it
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| 9 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 10 | NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 11 | mourn, along with his family, friends, colleagues, and former | ||||||
| 12 | students, the passing of Dr. Khachaturian; and be it further
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| 13 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 14 | presented to the family of Dr. Narbey Khachaturian as a symbol | ||||||
| 15 | of our sincere sympathy.
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