Sgt. Hagop Jack Zarifian’s final resting placePhotos by GVK Images
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—On a cold and rainy Saturday morning on November 23, nearly 80 years after a fatal injury took the life of a promising young Armenian boy from Bridgeport, Connecticut, the community bid Sgt. Hagop Jack Zarifian farewell as he was finally laid to rest in an emotional homecoming at North Burial Ground in Providence, Rhode Island.
A community gathered in honor of its heroic native sonThe Pontarelli-Marino Funeral Home in Providence was filled to capacity for the service as a steady stream of people filed in to pay their respects to the fallen Armenian American hero, who was killed in action in the Battle of Buchhof during World War II in Germany. Much has been written about Sgt. Zarifian, and the Rhode Island community turned out in force in a show of support for the soldier and his family members.
U.S. veterans gathered to pay their respects to Sgt. ZarifianHis two surviving sisters, Marion Chapkounian and Louise Goorhigian, and their families received friends, neighbors, clergy from Sts. Sahag and Mesrob and Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Churches and their parishioners, and members of the military including proud veterans who had not even been born when Sgt. Zarifian lost his life.
The saying “time heals all wounds” is not always accurate, and certainly not in this case, as witnessed when Sgt. Zarifian’s sisters wept as they were presented with the folded American flag with full military honors.
Providence Homenetmen Scouts George Donoyan (U.S. flag) and Nerses Donoyan (Armenian flag) serving as honor guard at the Pontarelli-Marino Funeral HomeProvidence Homenetmen Scouts George Donoyan and Nerses Donoyan served as honor guards, proudly displaying the American and Armenian flags both at the funeral home and at the cemetery.
Several of Sgt. Zarifian’s relatives told the Weekly how grateful they were for the community’s support and attendance in memory of their beloved hero. They expressed awe that so many people who never knew the soldier took the time to pay their respects.
Deacon Alex Calikyan, Rev. Fr. Shnork Souin, Archpriest Fr. Gomidas Baghsarian and acolyte Michael Kasparian during Sgt. Zarifian’s funeral serviceArchpriest Fr. Gomidas Baghsarian joined Rev. Fr. Shnork Souin, Dn. Alex Calikyan and acolyte Michael Kasparian of Sts. Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Church for the funeral service for Sgt. Zarifian. Offering prayers at the cemetery was Rev. Dr. Rotunda East (U.S. Air Force), who serves as the chief of chaplains at the Providence VA Medical Center. The solemnity and reverence with which people attended was evident by the complete silence during the service, save for the tears of family and community members.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi, Mayor Lombardi’s Chief of Staff Richard Fossa and RI State Senator David P. TikoianMany elected officials patiently joined the community in paying their respects, including Congressman Gabe Amo, RI Secretary of State Gregg Amore, RI State Treasurer James Diossa, RI Attorney General Peter Neronha, RI State Senator David P. Tikoian, RI State Rep. Nathan Biah, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi and his chief of staff Richard Fossa. U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse were out of state and sent staff members to represent them.
For decades, Sgt. Zarifian’s family desperately searched for answers about what happened to their boy, who was just 19 when he was designated as missing and killed in action. Millions died in the “war to end all wars,” and there are certainly other families who still wonder where their sons and daughters lie around the world. Fortunately, this family doesn’t have to wonder anymore.
It was a miracle that Sgt. Zarifian was located. A confluence of events led to the discovery of his remains. His fellow workers at the General Electric plant in Bridgeport had given him a bracelet. They took a liking to this young man before he was sent overseas to defend the nation. It seems he had the same effect on others, including at the church where he served as an altar boy, the Armenian Church of the Holy Ascension, now located in Trumbull, Connecticut. Sgt. Zarifian would mow the lawn and was so amenable to any task the women of the church asked of him that they affectionately called him Saint Hagop.
Many survivors of the Armenian Genocide landed on the shores of the east coast of the U.S. seeking a safe haven and a new start after the losses and horrors they had suffered. Grateful for their new home, many sons and daughters of these survivors went on to fight for their nation in World War II, giving their lives in the name of the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
As Rev. Fr. Souin said in his eulogy, the Zarifian family, like thousands of other survivor families, knew that the rights for which these heroes fought “have been attacked, obscured by ideology and violated by evil” throughout history. “Stripped of their inalienable rights, treated with unspeakable cruelty and forced to endure unimaginable suffering, they bore witness to humanity’s darkest potential. Yet, they survived. They came to America, seeking refuge and the chance to live out the ideals promised by this nation,” he said.
Veterans salute Sgt. Zarifian as he is laid to rest at North Burial Ground in Providence, RISoldiers saluted and community members prayed as Sgt. Zarifian was laid to rest.
“Jack has come home, to rest on the very soil he fought so valiantly to protect. He has returned to the land that gave his family the freedoms for which he laid down his life — the same land that now embraces him in eternal gratitude,” Rev. Fr. Souin said.
Rev. Fr. Shnork Souin makes the sign of the cross with soil from the beaches of Normandy, the location of the D-Day invasions during WW II, on Sgt. Hagop Jack Zarifian’s casket as Rev. Dr. Rotunda East, Dn. Alex Calikyan, Archpriest Fr. Gomidas Baghsarian and acolyte Michael Kasparian look onRest in eternal everlasting peace, Sgt. Zarifian. Job well done.
Rev. Fr. Shnork Souin delivers the eulogy for Sgt. Hagop Jack ZarifianA poem by Rev. Fr. Shnork Souin
Read during the funeral service of Sgt. Hagop Jack Zarifian on Nov. 23, 2024
The young man returned
Nineteen springs had graced his life,
A child of grief, a son of strife.
Born of those who fled despair,
Who crossed the seas on hope and prayer.
Their past was ash, their dreams undone,
By hands of hate, beneath no sun.
Yet in this land, his roots took hold,
A first-born story, bright and bold.
He carried dreams his kin had lost,
Through fields of promise, tempest-tossed.
An immigrant’s child, yet born to soar,
He pledged his heart to freedom’s war.
The world ablaze, he answered the call,
For liberty’s sake, he’d give his all.
Through mud and blood, he held the line,
His courage burning, a flame divine.
In the shadowed days near victory’s dawn,
He fell, and the world moved on.
No grave to mark, no kin to weep,
But freedom knows no soul it keeps.
Eighty years, the earth concealed,
His sacrifice, long unrevealed.
Until at last, the soldier found,
Brought home to rest on hallowed ground.
The town gathered, the flags were raised,
A centenarian sister, her gaze unphased.
Though time had dimmed her fading sight,
Her heart still held his name alight.
Beneath the oak, they laid him low,
As bugles sang and soft winds blow.
The dreams he bore, now ours to keep,
A legacy that will not sleep.
A young man rests where he belongs,
Amid his people, amidst their songs.
For though he fell, his cause lives on,
A hero’s spirit, never gone.
