Nancy Akmajian

AKMAJIAN, Nancy

(née Siranoush Sarkisian)

January 16, 1919 - June 19, 2020

Nancy died peacefully at age 101 after falling victim to the COVID virus. She was born at home to Gabriel and Makrouhy Sarkisian in West New York, NJ. She grew up in New Jersey and watched from her front porch as the Empire State Building rose in Manhattan across the Hudson River. She spent idyllic summers at Lake Hopatcong with her parents, four siblings, cousins, friends and eventually her future husband, Diran Akmajian, who became a music professor at the University of Arizona in 1955. Nancy was the matriarch of an adoring family. She showered all of her family and her many friends with unconditional love, affection and support. She was a skilled chef famous for the best baklava on earth and created countless feasts for family and friends. The arc of her long life took her to many places, living in Rome (when husband Diran was on a Fulbright scholarship) and in Vienna for a year when he took a sabbatical. She and Diran lived in Paris in 1976, and she took a river boat cruise with friends on the Volga River in the Soviet Union in 1982. Nancy was preceded in death by her husband, Diran and oldest son, Adrian. She is survived by her sons, Paul (Karen Reck) and Peter; daughters-in-law, Colleen Cacy and Mary Hotvedt; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A memorial to celebrate our beloved Nancy will take place when it is safe to do so. Donations may be made in Nancy's memory to the University of Arizona Foundation for scholarships in music or linguistics. Arrangements by ANGEL VALLEY FUNERAL HOME.