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Jirayr H Zorthian
| Jirayr H Zorthian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 April 1911 Kütahya |
| Died | 6 January 2004 |
| Known for | Painting |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 34361495 |
| Enlisted | Ft Oglethorpe, Georgia |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
Jirayr Hamparzoom Zorthian (April 14, 1911 — January 6, 2004) was an Armenian American artist.
Biography[edit | edit source]
Jirayr Hamparzoom Zorthian (April 14, 1911 — January 6, 2004) was an Armenian American artist.
Born of Armenian parents on April 14, 1911, in Kütahya, Western Anatolia, Ottoman Empire, Zorthian escaped through Europe with the remnants of his family to escape the Armenian genocide, and arrived in New Haven, Connecticut in 1923. He earned a Master of Fine Arts at Yale University (where he had a "full college scholarship to the Yale School of fine arts") and studied art in Italy in the 1930s. Returning to the United States during the Great Depression, he painted several massive murals, including 11 for the Tennessee State Capitol in 1938 which earned him the honorary title of "Colonel". In 1940, he painted the mural at the United States Post Office in St. Johnsville, New York, titled "Early St. Johnsville Pioneers."
During World War II, he first served in the 603rd Camouflage Engineer Battalion, a unit including many New York City area artists that eventually became part of the famed Ghost Army. The following year he was transferred (still stateside) to army intelligence and painted what he came to consider his masterpiece—a mural he titled The Phantasmagoria of Military Intelligence Training. His training at Camp Ritchie makes him one of many Ritchie Boys. His first marriage, to shaving cream heiress Betty Williams, ended in divorce but he gained the first acres of the Altadena ranch where he lived from 1945 until his death.
Zorthian is known among physicists for his friendship with Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winning physicist. They met at a party where Feynman played bongos: Zorthian removed his shirt and made funny designs on his own chest with available materials. Zorthian and Feynman's attempts to teach each other physics and art respectively are described in Feynman's autobiography Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. Zorthian's teaching inspired Feynman to take up drawing, a pastime he continued for the rest of his life.
Research notes[edit | edit source]
- Draftsman
- DEML
Gallery[edit | edit source]
After you are autoconfirmed, upload a photo and add [[File:Example.jpg|thumb|caption]] here, or set |photo=Example.jpg in the infobox.
Technical record[edit | edit source]
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Nara ASN | 34361495 |
| Nara Name | ZORTHIAN JIRAYR H |
| Nara State | 11 |
| Nara County | 009 |
| Nara POE | 4350 |
| Nara DOE | 240742 |
| Nara Grade Alpha | PVT |
| Nara Race | 1 |
| Nara Race Description | White citizen |
| Nara Height (inches) | 62 |
| Nara Weight (lbs) | 147 |
| row_source | demographics |
Sources[edit | edit source]
- Wikipedia: Jirayr Zorthian
- Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
- Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)