Maritza Mamourian

 Maritza Mamourian 1925-2025

Maritza Mamourian’s life revolved around her boundless love for husband Marcus, parents Zabel and Garabed Hachikian, siblings -Vahe, Alice, Nerme, Seran, children-Alicia and Alexander, her six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.  Her parents immigrated to Philadelphia from Paris, France shortly after the genocide. Soon after, her father, a Sorbonne educated chemist, started making bleach in his home. Within two years he had built a factory in Philadelphia and founded a company- Hachik Bleach Co.  As the oldest daughter she adopted the role of caring for her siblings early on and feeding her elderly grandparents who lived with their family.  Maritza married her true love Marcus Mamourian in 1949 after he had returned from his service in the army during WWII. They were inseparable for the next 70 years until his death in 2020. As his wife she was devoted to helping with his insurance business, raising their children, then grandchildren,  all while serving with the Ladies Guild of the St. Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church.

She will be remembered by many by some association with a food. She loved making and giving away cheoreg, and for the past fifteen years with the caveat “This will be the last batch”. Most can remember her signature “Pitsas”, spelled Pitsa in her recipe notes. And she had her way of twisting the English language but it was usually in a way that made its own sort of sense. Recently she would say she was reading about “Global Warning, instead of warming”. But she would say these things without any guile and you just accepted it as part of Mitsa’s worldview. If you spent any time with her you would leave with some Mitsa advice. For young women it might be, “Wear lipstick, red only” but more frequently it had to do with finance or stocks and for young men and women alike, “Open a Roth account soon”.

She was a gifted seamstress who made her wedding dress and those of her bridesmaids. She appreciated fashion and stylish clothing and was outspoken in criticism of poor design or fabrics, usually leaving well-regarded clothing stores empty handed saying “It’s all junk, I’ll make it myself”. She was an avid reader and a connoisseur of movies from the post war era. At some point she developed a keen interest in the stock market and read the New York Times and Wall Street Journal daily and cover to cover, trading stocks fearlessly and could quote the prices of most major stocks on the NY exchange even to her last days. If anyone told her that it was more productive to put her money in a mutual fund, she would say “That’s no fun” since she treated it all as a sort of game. Perhaps as the result of growing up during the great depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929, she was always very frugal and grocery shopping with her involved arriving at the checkout line with stacks of coupons.

            But always her greatest delight came from caring for others whether her husband in his failing health at the end of his days, her neighbors, children, grand-children or great grandchildren. This along with her unique character may explain how she became known by a single name, like Cher or Lebron. She was just “Mitsa”.  Her loving nature, unfailing generosity, along with a charming humility will be missed by all who knew her during her long and, in many ways, remarkable life. 

Family and friends are invited to a visitation from 10-11am Friday January 10, 2025 at St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church, 630 Clothier Rd., Wynnewood, PA  19096.  Her funeeral service will begin promptly at 11am.  Interment to follow in Laurel Hill West Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, PA.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the church.

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