Arden L. Kashishian

May 22, 1933 – November 29, 2003

Presented by nephew Craig Apregan at the Celebration of Arden’s Life on December 8, 2003 at the San Joaquin Country Club in Fresno.

 Early Life:

• He was born in Parlier on May 22, 1933; passed away on November 29, 2003 at the age of 70.

• He attended Parlier High School where he was Senior Class President and participated in just about every sport.  To the day he died, he had a love of Parlier and cried when the house that his sister Quin and he grew up in was moved to make way for a housing development on Manning Avenue about 10 miles south of Fresno.

• He attended Reedley College and Fresno State where he majored in Viticulture.

 Professional Life:

• He was a third generation farmer.

• After his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1961, he joined his mother and father (Mary and Enoch Kashishian) in the family farming business----Arden ran the McFarland ranch.

• After selling the ranches in Parlier and McFarland, Arden went on to manage several ranches in the Central Valley.

• He then became an Agricultural Consultant and managed the harvests of a variety of crops (asparagus, lettuce, strawberries, grapes, peaches, watermelons, etc.) in Oregon, Washington, California, Chile, Argentina, Peru, China, Uruguay and others.

Civic Life:

• Active member in the Agricultural Leadership Foundation – he was a Fellow in Class 4.  The purpose of the group is to prepare men and women in agriculture for more effective leadership.

• Member of the Knights of Vartan and the Selma chapter of the Triple X Fraternity.

 Personal Traits:

• He knew everyone.  He would walk into a room and “everyone would know Arden”.

• He cherished his cousins and family.

• He cherished his longtime friends from Parlier, his condo unit, the breakfast group, Ag Leadership, Knights of Vartan and Triple X.

• He was patriotic long before it was fashionable…would fly the flag in front of his condo on holidays and occasions that he deemed as being “special”  (e.g. birthdays of friends, family anniversaries, etc.).

• He was generous to his friends and family….always had a car load of fruit, Armenian cracker bread, turchi (pickled peppers that he made himself) that he would deliver to friends.  Somehow, would manage to produce grapes in the dead of winter.

He was generous to others.   He donated his time to working with third world counties to help them improve their food production.  Additionally, when leaving those countries as well as those where he was working harvests, he would leave with only the clothes that he was wearing.  Not sure how many people could use clothes for someone that was 6’4”, but it made him feel good.  He would leave his other clothes there for the people to use.  He would also collect used shoes and toys from family and friends before leaving and take them to these people.