Obituary of Zaven Mukhalian

Zaven “Mac” Mukhalian, 73, a retired U.S. Navy Commander, died on February 26, 1992 in Bellevue, Washington, after a short illness. He was the husband of Julia (Riley) Mukhalian. Born on February 18, 1919 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, he was the son of immigrants Charles and Dorothea (Bystrinski) Mukhalian of Brockton, Massachusetts, and the brother to Edward J. Mukhalian, Sartin Stella Moquin and Henry “Babe” Mukhalian. After graduating from Brockton High School, Zaven served as a deck cadet on the S.S. URAGUAY, a passenger vessel on the Moore-McCormick Line in New York, traveling between New York and South America. He graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in February 1942 and, in August of that year, he received his commission as Ensign, USNR, and ordered to active duty. His first assignment was that of Navigator on the USS LYON, a transport ship. It was on this ship that he first met his future wife, Julia Riley. Second Lieutenant Julia Riley was part of a squadron of US Army nurses being transported to Algeria for the campaign in North Africa. Always the adept storyteller, Zaven would often tell about the first time he saw Julia as she was boarding the ship, saw her beautiful blue eyes, and his heart went “boing.” He knew that she was the one for him. Julia was already engaged to a paratrooper at the time and, after reading about her marriage to 2nd Lieutenant William Kautz in August 1943 in the Stars & Stripes, Zaven’s shipmates draped their black ties over the photo of Julia that he kept by his bunk. He served on the USS LYON until the end of WWII. Succeeding tours of duty were with the USS WHETSTONE and USS DERRICK. In February 1947, he transferred from the Navy Reserves to active duty in the Navy where he served both afloat and ashore. He also reunited with Julia Riley Kautz, now a widow with a son, and they were married in Chicago on May 16, 1948. From 1954 to 1956, he was the skipper of the USS BEGOR, a high-speed transport, which took part in operation “Passage to Freedom” (evacuation of 600,000 refugees from North to South Viet Nam). In 1958, he was given command of the USS AMMEN, a destroyer. One foggy morning in the summer of 1960, while en route for decommissioning, the USS AMMEN was struck by the USS COLLETT. Though CDR Mukhalian was cleared of any wrongdoing, the 11 USS AMMEN sailors killed that day would weigh heavily on him the rest of his life. From 1960 to 1965, he was a professor and head of the Department of Naval Science at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York. He was then transferred to the Pier 91 Naval Supply Center in Seattle, Washington, where he served as Administrative Dept. Director until he retired in 1969. During his 26 years of active service in the Navy, he received the following medals and awards: European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign (4 stars); American Campaign; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign (1 star); Victory (WWII); Navy Occupation Service; China Service (extended); National Defense Service; Armed Forces Expeditionary (Taiwan Straits); Philippine Liberation Ribbon; and Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation. After retiring from the Navy, he obtained his Master Mariner Unlimited License (which he proudly stated, “would now allow him to skipper the Queen Mary”). He went back to sea, working as a merchant seaman from 1969 until 1981, aboard various tugboats and seafood processing vessels to and from Alaska. Zaven is survived by a son, William G. Kautz; three daughters, Joanne S. Rice, Carol S. Mukhalian and Martha D. Mukhalian; nine grandchildren; four great grandchildren; a niece, Marilyn R. Thomas; and a grandnephew, Kevin Thomas. Please leave memories of Zaven or condolences for his family in the Guestbook below.