Acopian Center for Ornithology

Acopian was born in Tabriz, Iran, on December 8, 1926, to Armenian parents who left Russia and Turkey and finally settled in Iran. He grew up as a Christian Armenian in Iran and later left that country, in 1945, to come to the United States to study engineering at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. His education was interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. While stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in the Army Air Training Command in San Antonio, Texas, he met his future wife, Bobbye Seitze Mixon. He returned to Lafayette College after being honorably discharged and graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. During and after college, he worked for Weller Electric Corp and designed a power sander that became one of their main products.

Since his early childhood, he dreamed of operating his own business. In 1957, he took out a loan from a local bank and began his journey. That same year he designed and manufactured the first ever solar radio. This eventually led to the power supply business, Acopian Technical Company, which is still operating today.

Acopian was a very modest and civic-minded man who believed in giving back to society. He has made numerous donations to national and international causes which have included The Acopian Engineering Center at Lafayette College, the Acopian Center for Conservation Learning at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and The Acopian Center for Ornithology at Muhlenberg College, as well as endowing the environmental education program at the American University of Armenia and the Florida Institute of Technology. His great sense of gratitude to his adopted country played a major part in his being the largest individual donor to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. He received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the St. Gregory the Illuminator Medal, and an honorary doctor of science degree from Muhlenberg College.

In the later years of his life, he assembled a team of ornithologists in Armenia and the U.S. to work toward publishing a field guide on the birds of Armenia in hopes of introducing the newly independent former Soviet republic to the idea of environmental conservation. “A Field Guide of Birds of Armenia” was published in 1997. The first accurate map of the newly independent Republic of Armenia was also published as a result of the Birds of Armenia Project.

Acopian died at his home in Easton, Pennsylvania, with his family at his bedside on Thursday, January 18, 2007. He was 80.