The Armenian Assembly of America mourns the loss of Assembly Board of Trustees Member Peter Kezirian who passed away suddenly last week. He was just 48.

"Peter was a dynamic, talented, dedicated individual who greatly contributed to the Assembly's ongoing work for the betterment of Armenia and Artsakh," stated Assembly Chairman Hirair Hovnanian and President Carolyn Mugar.

As an undergraduate student at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Peter Kezirian chaired the largest Model United Nations program in the world, with 3,200 participants and a multi-million dollar budget. He was also the first intern to work for U.S. Senator Pete Wilson (R-CA) and ultimately joined his staff as the Research Assistant for National Security. After completing law school at the University of Southern California, Kezirian joined the international law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, where he practiced corporate and securities law.

Additionally, he served two California Governors. With the ratification of Armenia's constitution after independence, Kezirian participated on the seven-member faculty, headed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for the 1995 Armenian Judiciary Conference in Yerevan on issues of constitutional interpretation. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pacific Council and was a German Marshall Plan Fellow.

Kezirian also excelled in the business world rising to Senior Vice President for Corporate Strategy & Strategic Development for the Cooperative of American Physicians based in Los Angeles.

He was an integral part of the Assembly's leadership and spent countless hours on Capitol Hill advocating on key issues for the Armenian-American community.

In recognition of Kezirian's service in the public sphere and his keen interest in politics and international relations, the Assembly Board of Trustees announced the endowment of a scholarship in his name for students participating in the Assembly's Terjenian-Thomas Summer Internship Program in Washington, DC. The eight-week summer program is designed to provide college students of Armenian descent the opportunity to intern in the nation's capital in congressional offices, think tanks, media outlets, government agencies and non-governmental organizations, while taking part in a full schedule of educational, social and cultural activities.