LOS ANGELES — Prof. Osheen Keshishian, well-known intellectual, educator, and journalist in the California Armenian community, passed away on Monday, October 19, 2026, after a short illness in Los Angeles. Osheen was born in Jerusalem on November 30, 1934. He attended the Holy Translators school there until 1948, the Arab-Israeli war, when his family first fled to Amman, Jordan and a year later to Beirut, Lebanon. Osheen graduated from the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s Hovagimian-Manougian high school for boys in 1955. He attended the American University of Beirut for one year and then immigrated to the United States of America, settling in California. Osheen graduated from California State University, Los Angeles, and the University of La Verne with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Anthropology and American Studies. He served in the US Army for two years, 1959-61, as a medic, working in Madigan General Hospital, outside Lakewood, Washington. Osheen was the owner and editor-in-chief of the English language weekly newspaper The Armenian Observer , which began publication in 1970 and continued till 2023. In the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, he was the editor of the first Diocesan-wide newspaper, the Californian . He worked as a professor in the Language Department of Los Angeles City College, following which, he was on the faculty of Glendale Community College from 1985 for 27 years. Osheen was a member of the Central Board of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada for a number of years. He was also a long-time member of the Board of Trustees of the Tekeyan Cultural Association Arshag Dickranian school in Los Angeles. A participant in the first Airlie conference that founded the Armenian Assembly of America, Keshishian remained a friend of the organization. Osheen was on the Committee of the Armenian Genocide Monument, which was erected in 1968, in Montebello. Osheen was entrusted with the transfer of the remains of the famous author William Saroyan to Yerevan, Armenia in 1982. He was invited three times to the White House, once to accompany President of the Republic of Armenia Levon Ter Petrossian. Osheen is the recipient of the St. Sahag-St. Mesrob Medal, with its accompanying encyclical, from the late Catholicos of All Armenians Vasken I. He has also received the Vartkes Balian award for Journalism, from the Central Board of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada. He is survived by his wife, Natalia Shalikashvili and daughter, Kevork and Diana Boyajian and children; daughter, Michael and Knar Solakian and children; brother, Onnig and Kristine Keshishian; nephew, Nareg Keshishian; nephew, Kevork and Taline Keshishian; niece, Shogher Apelian and children; nephew, Viken and Sirvart Mouradian and children; Nune Gulakhnamian and children; cousin, Sossy Ashjian-Crilly and children; cousin, Jack and Arsine Megerdichian and children; cousin, Ani Babayan and family; Noyemi Berberian and family; and the entire Shalikashvili, Keshishian, Roupinian,, Solakian, Mouradian, Apelian, Ashjian, Bababyan, Boyajian, Gulakhnamian, Berberian and Megerdichian families, relatives and friends. Funeral services will be held on Monday, November 2, at 10 a.m. at the St. Leon Armenian Cathedral, located at 3325 N. Glenoaks Blvd. Burbank, CA 91504 . Interment will follow at the Grand View Memorial Park, located at 1341 Glenwood Road, Glendale, CA 91201 . The post Obituary: Journalist and Educator Osheen Keshishian appeared first on The Armenian Mirror-Spectator .