Steven B. Derounian

Former United States Representative and NYS Supreme Court Justice dies at 89.

As a young attorney with a reputation for a strong handshake, Mr. Derounian began his political career when he was elected councilman of the town board of North Hempstead from 1948 to 1952. He was subsequently elected from the 2nd District of NY to the House of Representatives as a Republican in the 83rd and the five succeeding Congresses, from Jan. 3, 1953 to Jan. 3, 1965, the first Armenian-American elected to Congress. During his five terms as Congressman, Mr. Derounian served on the Ways and Means Committee, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the District of Columbia Committee, the subcommittees on Transportation & Aeronautics and the Special Committee on Legislative Oversight and served as Congressional Advisor to the US Delegation to the World Health Assembly at New Delhi, India, and to the US Delegations to Liberia and the Cameroons. He was part of the Congressional subcommittee that investigated the 1950s quiz show scandals involving Charles Van Doren and the Dick Clark payola hearings. His remarks and questioning won him national attention as an advocate of honesty and integrity in government and were quoted in the Robert Redford movie The Quiz Show in which the hearings were portrayed. In 1954, he was elected a member of The Chowder and Marching Society, a society of influential Republican congressmen, and was a delegate to the 1956 and 1960 Republican National Conventions.

After completing his sixth term in Congress, he became senior partner in the New York law firm of Derounian, Candee, Guardino, and Murphy, from 1965 to 1969. In 1968 Mr. Derounian, a resident of Garden City, was elected as Justice of the Supreme Court of NY and he served on the bench from 1969 to 1981. The Derounians retired to Austin, TX, in 1981, where he was of counsel for the law firm McGinnis, Lockridge, and Kilgore. He was a member of the American Bar Association, NY Bar Association, Washington Bar Association and the Austin Bar Association.

Mr. Derounian was born to Armenian parents, Boghos and Eliza Derounian, in Sofia, Bulgaria on April 6, 1918. He was brought to the U.S. in 1921 when his parents and two brothers immigrated to the U.S. to escape the massacre of Armenian Apostolics by the Turks. The family settled in Mineola. He graduated from the Mineola public schools first in his class, worked his way through New York University and the Fordham University School of Law, where he was editor of the Fordham Law Review. He graduated and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1942 and began practice in Mineola the same year. Mr. Derounian was licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the NY Supreme Court, the Federal Communications Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Board of Immigration. Four months after passing the New York Bar he was selected for Officer Candidate School and, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant, joined the 103rd Infantry (Cactus) Division with which he served in combat overseas from October 1944 to March 1946. He was awarded the Purple Heart, and the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster. He was discharged as Captain in 1946.

In 1947, Mr. Derounian met and married the former Emily Ann Kennard of Gonzales, TX, whom he met while the recent University of Texas graduate was living in New York. He was a Mason (Mineola Lodge, Second Nassau District), a devoted member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd where he served on its Vestry, search committee, and as an usher. He was an avid golf and tennis player, an accomplished violinist, and a lover of opera and symphonic music. He was a recipient, in 1961, of the Sarafin Award, an award of national recognition given by the Armenian Student Association to Armenians who have made exceptional contributions to community life. Mr. Derounian never met a stranger. He brought to his duties and to his life, an indefatigable and optimistic zest grounded in honesty, integrity, and great pride to be an American.

Preceded in death by his son Steven Blake Derounian, his brothers Avedis and Hagop (Jack) Derounian, Mr. Derounian is survived by his wife of 60 years, Emily Ann Derounian; daughters Ann Banks, Lexington, KY, and Eleanor Derounian, Austin, TX; son-in-law David P. Banks III, Lexington; granddaughter Elizabeth Ashby Green, Lexington; niece Elyse Derounian of Manhattan; nephews Paul Derounian of Manhattan and Robert Derounian of Penfield, NY.

A memorial service will be held on April 28 at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, TX. A service of committal will be held at the Masonic Cemetery in Gonzales, TX. In memoriam, the family requests that memorials be made to Hospice Austin, Spicewood Springs Road, The Gathering at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church, Austin, TX, and the Salvation Army.

Obituary and guestbook available online at www.wcfish.com. Arrangements by Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, Austin (512) 452-8811).