California's Oldest Armenian Church to Mark Memorial Day 2024

On Memorial Day 2024, California’s oldest Armenian

religious institution will remember an early-day parishioner on the 105th
Anniversary of his passing in the Europe of World War I.

Members and friends of
Fresno’s First Armenian Presbyterian Church will commemorate the federal
holiday on Monday, May 27, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Hillcrest Tree Farm, 6943
South Reed Avenue at Adams Avenue in Reedley, California, 16 miles east of
Freeway 99.

The public is invited
to attend the picnic event, which will include complimentary barbecue kebab and
hot dog lunches, bounce houses for children, live music with Armenian dancing,
and steam train rides for all ages.
Advance reservations are recommended and may be made by calling (559)
237-6638 or visiting www.fapc.net.

The gathered assembly
will remember doughboy Sisok Hagop Darbinian.
A native of Armenia, Darbinian immigrated with his family to the United
States in the summer of 1900. He
graduated from Fresno High School (Class of 1912), matriculated at then-Fresno
Junior College, and served as Sunday School Superintendent of FAPC. In March 1917, Darbinian joined Section 590
of the U.S. Ambulance Corps while a senior in the College of Commerce at the
University of California. After training
in Pennsylvania, he arrived in Europe in June 1918 and was attached to the 80th
and 89th Divisions and Third Army of the American Expeditionary
Forces.

Private First Class
Darbinian drove motorized trucks at the battlefront during heavy shell fire and
was cited and decorated by the governments of Italy, France, and the United
States. He passed away from pneumonia in
Coblenz, Germany on Valentine’s Day 1919, three months after the proclamation
of the Armistice, and posthumously received the U.C. Certificate of Honor. In August 1920, he was the first Fresno “Pershing
Crusader” to have his remains returned to Central California for burial with
full military honors at Ararat Armenian Cemetery.

Virtuoso musician Richard
Avedis Hagopian and his band will join the Memorial Day celebrants for an
afternoon of ethnic music and dancing. A
native of rural Fowler, California and proficient in more than 50 musical
instruments, Hagopian is best known as a Master of the Oud, a lute-like
instrument. He gained fame as part of the Kef Time Band, which played a style
of dance music popular among the Armenian-American communities throughout the
United States for the past half century.
Hagopian was inducted into the Valley Music Hall of Fame on September
21, 2022.

Hillcrest Farm is the
oldest Christmas Tree Farm in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Founded in
1960 by Ed and Bonnie Toews, the Farm includes the Hillcrest & Wahtoke
Railroad, a five-inch scale/15-inch narrow gauge railway with live steam
locomotives and a host of gondolas and stock cars. U.S. Air Force Veterans Sean
and Melissa Bautista are the current proprietors of the Farm, Shops, and 1.2
mile Railroad.

Forty immigrants from
Marsovan chartered the First Armenian Presbyterian Church in a rented Fresno
hall on July 25, 1897. Succeeding generations served in the United States
military during World Wars I and II, the Korean conflict, and in Southeast Asia

The congregation’s
picnic tradition began with turn-of-the-20th-century Decoration Day
gatherings at The Hills, Fresno Beach on the San Joaquin River, Tarpinian Ranch
in Easton, and Chateau Fresno Park.

The custom of placing
flowers on the graves of the war dead began on May 5, 1866 in Waterloo, New
York. In 1868, General John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of
the Republic, declared May 30 a day for decorating the graves of dead comrades with
flowers. He closed his order by stating: “Let no ravages of time testify to
coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and
undivided Republic.”

The boyhood Church of authors
William Saroyan and A.I. Bezzerides, FAPC is a member congregation of the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) and the Armenian Evangelical Union of
North America (AEUNA). Reverend Gregory Vahack Haroutunian is the Senior
Pastor. The 2024 theme of the
congregation is: “Love God. Love Others.
Make Disciples.”