Celebrating the Life of Ambassador Rouben Shougarian

It is with deepest sadness that we share Ambassador Rouben Shougarian, the first Armenian ambassador to the United States, and a beloved professor in our Tavitian Scholars Program in Public Policy and Administration, has passed away.

Ambassador Shougarian embodied every part of Fletcher’s mission and his contributions to our world were numerous. In addition to serving as Armenia’s Ambassador to the U.S. from 1993-1999, he also served as Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister from 2001-2005, and, prior to this, was Armenia’s Ambassador to Italy, Spain and Portugal from 2005-2008.

Ambassador Shougarian was part of the Tavitian Scholars program since its very inception, helping to guide the evolution of what has become a well-known and respected program. The six-month training program in public policy and administration for Armenian government officials is part of our Executive Education offerings.

At an event with the Tavitian program on campus in 2018, Ambassador Shougarian reminisced about the early days of the movement for Armenian independence and praised The Fletcher School’s efforts over the past several decades as having a major impact on Armenian life.

We will dearly miss this esteemed member of our faculty, someone who was at once formidable and kind, intelligent and humble. You may read more about our beloved friend here.

This post was republished from The Fletcher School website.