Elizabeth Gulezian

Elizabeth {Betty} Ananian Gulezian was born in the house she was raised at 570 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown and where she had her tonsils out on the kitchen table.  She lived in Watertown her entire life and attended the Watertown Public School system.  She would have been 98 on October 20.

She died at Cape Cod Hospital after a sudden illness.

She is survived by her daughter Rev. Joanne Hartunian {Nelson] and her son John M. Gulezian {Colleen] and their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, God children, nieces, and nephews; companion Judy Fackre; and lifelong friend Alice Mooshegian Derderian.

She began her post high school education when she was in her mid 50's and completed her Master's Degree following.  She was inducted into Kappa Delta Pi (KDP), the International Honor Society in Education.

She attended Harvard Extension School for a certificate in accounting/bookkeeping and later Mass Bay Community College, Boston State, UMass and Lesley University where she graduated with honors. She was a special needs teacher in the Watertown Public Schools and taught music at Eleanor Lewis' Lexington Kindergarten and Nursery School and Lexington Public Schools prior to that.

She loved books, reading, math and playing rummy!  The month prior to her death she said, "I don't want to ever stop learning."  Until her recent hospitalization, she daily climbed 24 stairs round trip; played scrabble, rummy and read with the help of a special machine for the legally blind.  Elizabeth suffered from Macular Degermation for 27 1/2 years and participated in eye studies and research for this leading cause of blindness.   She was a patient of Dr. Jeffrey Heier, one of the leading retinal clinical researchers in the country for new treatments of Macular Degeneration.   Upon a request from the UMass Medical School, Worcester, she donated her eyes for the study of Macular Degeneration.

She was a member of the Armenian Museum, Watertown; and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, Belmont.  She was a lifelong member of 82 years of the First Armenian Church, Belmont where she was recognized in the past as Mother of Year.  Betty was a choir member for 57 years; Sunday School Superintendent for several years; past member of Junior Ladies Aide and Women's Fellowship.  In her later years she volunteered on the Church Bulletin Mailing committee until her failing eyesight prevented her from continuing.  She was an active member of Avis Strong Parke’s Haiku poetry club that continued virtually through Covid.  For 36 years she was the resident grandmother at the Craigville Family Camp, Centerville, MA at the Christian Camp Meeting Association.

Betty's greatest achievement was in 1954 by researching and implementing Sister Elizabeth Kenny's then new approach for treating victims of poliomyelitis, which was highly controversial at the time.  Betty was recognized by the Red Cross and Harvard Medical School for using Sister Kenney's approach which today is known as physical therapy.

Betty's second achievement was the publication of her memoirs in 2019, The Times of our Lives which  documents the life of Watertown Armenians in the early 1900’s.   It is available in the research libraires of the Watertown Public Library and the Watertown Historical Society.

She took great pride in her WWII effort as a nurse's aide who cared for wounded soldiers and was a rooftop lookout guard for flying aircraft.

She is the widow of Krikor [Kirk] Gulezian.  She died minutes before her 73rd anniversary so that her husband, Kirk, could meet her at the horizon between earth and heaven and carry her over the threshold.

Her parents are survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1895.

Due to rising Covid her service and burial were private.  A Memorial Service will be scheduled at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Family Camp Scholarship Fund, First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.