As a result, during his graduate school studies, Young took an extension school class at Harvard with Richard N. Frye, Aga Khan professor of Iranian, emeritus.
"Back then the classes cost $10 each," Young said, "and when I went to see Frye one Saturday for office hours, I overhead him talking about Armenian studies. We discussed things for a while, and eventually I persuaded him to come out to Belmont to give a speech to the entire Armenian community there."
Young said Frye didn't disappoint his listeners.
"After that meeting we got organized and began to investigate how we could further the knowledge of Armenian studies in the U.S. One of our first ideas was to endow a chair at Harvard that would specifically address our needs," Young said.
In 1955, then-President Nathan Marsh Pusey told NAASR that Harvard required $300,000 to endow a chair.
"Although President Pusey was very kind about everything, he and many people at Harvard didn't think we'd ever get the resources together to actually establish a position at the university," Young said.
"By 1959, however, we were celebrating our successful initiative with a banquet in Memorial Hall. A lot of us were very proud to have made it," Young said. Professor James R. Russell currently holds the position endowed by Young and his colleagues, the Mashtots professorship of Armenian studies.
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