The Boy Who Lived

Michael Vartabedian was born on September 5, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York; he died in Romeoville, Illinois on May 26, 2025. He was the second son of Benjamin and Pam Vartabedian (née Mazmanian). He is survived by Elizabeth, his wife of 56 years; his sons Matthew (Jennifer) and Andrew (me); his grandchildren, Emmett and Maeve; and his brothers, H. Richard and Daniel (Mary). He is preceded in death by his parents and his best friend and kin, Bob Lutz.

Mike's official obituary is here.

Mike loved the New York Yankees. He loved the New York Mets a little less.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Mike was of Armenian-American heritage. His dad was born abroad, either in Armenia or in Marseilles; his paternal grandparents, Armenag and Mariam, were refugees displaced by the genocide of ethnic Armenians in the mid-1910s. His mom was born in an enclave of resettled Armenians in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Mike contracted polio when he was nine. He spent months at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, on a ward for other infected children and was one of the very few who left there alive. He required multiple surgeries through his adolescence to repair the damage the illness caused, and was challenged by its effects as he aged. There is no question that this experience shaped his entire life, especially as he developed a characteristic stubbornness, but - most importantly - it wasn't his entire life. While polio changed his body and strategies for moving through the world, his sharp mind, sense of humor, gregarious - and generous - personality, and horizon of possibility remained open.

He was proud of his education, from Midwood High School to the liberal arts incubator of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. There, he thrived as an economics major and continued to Columbia University, where he studied economics at the graduate level. Mike completed his law degree at St. John's University Law School, taking night classes while working as a manager at New York Telephone. He later worked as a lawyer for AT&T during the anti-trust and divestiture cases in the 1970s and 1980s. When he and Betty moved to Illinois in 2012, Mike passed the Illinois Bar and continued doing occasional legal work for members of the senior community he and Betty live in. Mike was admitted as counsel to the DC Circuit and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals, the New York Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court.

Mike and Betty met while working at New York Telephone. She worked as secretary to the company’s Associate Vice President and the company speechwriter. They lived outside of Manhattan, first in a small apartment in Hastings-on-Hudson, and later moved to a modest, semi-rural middle-class community in northern Westchester County where they raised their family. AV told me that a snake once appeared in the downstairs toilet of their house. I used that toilet exactly zero times.

Mike took a keen interest in local politics. He started early - in his first year at Bates, Mike was elected class president. Our refrigerator is covered with flyers and magnets from Mike's successful campaigns for the zoning board and town board in Somers, NY, roles he held from 1978-1999. Mike efforts were aimed toward preserving the natural landscape and semi-rural feel that he and Betty appreciated so much. His work included the protection of wetlands and watershed areas, especially in relation to the reservoirs that provided New York City's water supply. Mike’s orientation toward the world was shaped by common sense and practicality, a brand of conservatism rooted in understanding the way legal and political mechanisms work and how to navigate these. This understanding was itself rooted in his liberal arts education, bearing a particular openness to lessons of history. He used his political acumen, his considerable intellect, and his gregarious personality to serve his neighbors.

After retiring from AT&T, his friend Jim Porter invited him to consult on cases at an AT&T branch in New Jersey. He worked there for thirteen years, and this allowed him to establish a general legal practice in his home office. One memorable case from this period involved defending a fellow against neighbors who claimed he was luring geese onto their property. Another had to do with a poorly-conceived cell phone tower and its proximity to important community resources. Another saw him working with two teachers keen to purchase and manage the preschool they worked at. A fourth ensured that a prominent resident of Mt. Kisco did not build her proposed backyard replica of Mount Vernon to a scale that annoyed her neighbors. Most of his work, though, was on business organization, contracts, wills and trusts, and estate planning.

Mike was an avid swimmer, and swam at the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan (achieving the 500-mile mark in 1983 and the 1000-mile mark in 1986), the Boys and Girls Club pool in Mt. Kisco, and later at Pace University. He enjoyed the activity and the friends he'd make there more. He loved the water. We were fortunate to spend a couple of afternoons sailing Long Island Sound from Porter's mooring on City Island, and family vacations to Topsail Island, NC. He was a skilled backgammon player, famously defeating Jared Silverman in the AT&T office tournament and taking home the prize - an enormous avocado green corduroy backgammon board. Together he and Betty were ferocious Canasta opponents of ours for 20 years.

Mike understood how much I love his son, and that made for an enduring bond between us for much of the last twenty-five years. My first meeting with Mike and Betty was memorable. I was at an undergraduate conference at West Point, and at the urging of AV (still in Denver) I gave them a call. They picked me up the next evening, and the three of us enjoyed a lovely dinner at the Bear Mountain Inn. They invited me to their house the next day; Betty made me her excellent pizza, and then they drove me to Newark airport through Manhattan. Since I’d never been to New York, Mike reasoned that it would be good for me to see the sights. I did, from the backseat of their Chevy Impala, except for the moment he parked (using his special parking pass) at Rockefeller Center and Betty and I raced inside St. Patrick's Cathedral for a quick lap.

There was plenty we disagreed about, but we always sparred with good humor and wit. In 2003 or 2004, I announced at the dinner table that I was disgusted by the politics of George W. Bush. I said I was moving to Canada, a refrain I’d repeat aloud throughout the Bush years. On my next visit to their house, Mike wedged a small Canadian flag between the New York State Statues he had in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the office. He brought that flag with him to Illinois, where it sits today atop his bookshelf.

Mike Vartabedian lived the life that came to him. He lived it avidly, deliberately, and well.