Vahaken Tachdjian, retired gastroenterologist

Vahaken Tachdjian, 90, of Wynnewood, a retired gastroenterologist and an activist in the Armenian community, died of complications of a stroke Saturday, June 11, at Lankenau Hospital.

Dr. Tachdjian's grandparents were killed in the massacre of Armenians in Turkey in the early 20th century. In 1922, his parents fled Turkey with their year-old son and walked across the Syrian desert to Lebanon.

Raised and educated in Beirut, Dr. Tachdjian immigrated to the United States with his wife in 1958 to escape unrest in the Middle East.

In January 1964, he was chosen as spokesman for a group of 97 immigrants at a citizenship ceremony in Philadelphia. "We have chosen to become citizens of this country because we feel we can live here in peace and security," he said. After the swearing-in, he told The Inquirer that "we felt this was a country where human rights are respected."

Dr. Tachdjian earned a medical degree from the American University of Beirut. He was a fellow at Harvard University Medical School in 1948 and later did research in gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston before returning to Beirut.

After moving to the United States, he maintained medical offices in Wynnewood and at Graduate Hospital until he was in his mid-80s. He was also on the staff of Haverford Community Hospital.

Dr. Tachdjian was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine for many years. He wrote 20 articles published in scientific journals and was associate editor of the four-volume reference set Bockus Gastroenterology. In the 1990s, he served on the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.

According to an article published in the Armenian Reporter International in 2002, Dr. Tachdjian was a founder and past president of the Association of Armenian Doctors of Philadelphia, was active with a coalition of five Armenian churches in the Philadelphia region, and was a patron of the Armenian Sisters Academy in Radnor.

He received the key to the city from Mayor Frank L. Rizzo and an award from the Armenian Missionary Association of America, among other honors.

Dr. Tachdjian is survived by his wife of 67 years, Asdghik Der Bedrossian Tachdjian; daughters Ashkhen, Houri, and Maral; a brother; a sister; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at noon Saturday, June 18, at Armenian Martyrs' Congregational Church, 100 N. Edmonds Ave., Havertown. Friends may call from 10 a.m.