Author Description

Krikor Garabed Koltukian, affectionately known to his children and grandchildren as Pop, Grandpop, and Grandpops, was born in 1892 in the village of Efkere, Armenia, 8 miles northeast of Talas, which is 5 miles northwest of present-day Kayseri, Turkey. He attended the Talas American College, in Talas, and taught there for one year after graduating, until leaving for America in 1912, to study architecture at Penn State University in State College, PA, finally marrying and settling his family in Richmond, VA. His artistic talent has been digitally scanned from one of his sketchpads and reproduced within this book. Grandpop loved to capture classical subjects, nudes, and everyday people in his sketches, bringing him an inner peace from the horrific loss of his entire family, in the Armenian Genocide, except for his brother, Zenon, who simultaneously left Armenia for Montevideo, Uruguay. The Beyond the Sketches section presents scans of a few of his remaining color artwork, using oils, pastels, and watercolors. Lastly, the Photo Archive section contains the few remaining portrait and scenic photos from his treasured Armenia, and several from his college years and beyond.