Yeretzian, Arsen

Arsen Yeretzian was born in the Turkish pashalic of Van, Armenia, on April 15, 1882. After attending an American school in his homeland, he immigrated to Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1900, where he worked by day and attended night school. He moved to Fresno, California, in March 1906, briefly working on the Yosemite Railroad before buying and profitably selling a twenty-acre vineyard near Reedley.

Dedicated to higher education, Arsen studied at Lowell High School in San Francisco, the University of California, and the University of Southern California before passing the bar examination in July 1917. He established a successful law practice in Fresno’s Edgerly Building and married Ada Chicken, a native of England, on March 31, 1917. Beyond his legal work, he became a prominent public speaker and writer who translated Ambassador Gerard’s book, Four Years in Germany, into Armenian for the local community.