Robert Magarian
Robert Magarian
Robert Magarian was born in East St. Louis, Illinois on July 27, 1930, the son of Dr. Leon and Pauline Mary Struel Magarian. He received his early education in East St. Louis public schools and graduated from East Side High School in June, 1948.
Bob married Charmaine Virginia Kugler of East St. Louis, Illinois on June 24, 1950. They have three daughters and a son, Paula Magarian, Cindy Weisberg, Leslie Magarian-Holtzclaw and Robert D. Magarian, and one granddaughter, Natalie Freude Stephens.
Bob had finished three years toward his BA pre-med degree at Washington University in St. Louis in 1952 when he was yanked out of school during the Korean War to be inducted into the Army. In 1953, while in Korea, not wanting to return to the commuter school in St. Louis because it was too expensive, he began writing several universities searching for married student housing on campus. Fortunately, he met a lieutenant from his home state of Illinois who had a pharmacy degree from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), who told him that the university had married student housing in what they called “Vets Village.” Bob wrote Ole Miss and learned about Vets Village and the much cheaper tuition. He made application and was accepted.
When he was released from the Army in August 1954, Bob and his wife, Charmaine, went to Oxford to check out the town and the University. They toured the campus and fell in love with its beauty. Then they went into the Lyceum building where they met Chancellor Alton Bryant, who was walking the halls. He took them on a tour. They were so impressed with the friendliness of the University and Oxford that they rented an apartment in Vets Village before they left. They returned two weeks later, which was the beginning of ten years in Oxford, their second home.
Bob received his B.A. in Philosophy/Biology/Chemistry from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1954, but never went on to med school. He earned his B.S. in Pharmacy from Ole Miss in January 1960. During his time in pharmacy school, Bob was honored with the Rexall Trophy Award (Outstanding achievement of a third-year pharmacy student); Rho Chi Honor Society; Lehn & Fink Gold Medal Award (Highest overall average for four years in pharmacy); Merck Award (Outstanding achievement of a fourth-year pharmacy student); and the Taylor Medal (Highest honor awarded by the University of Mississippi).
He became licensed in Mississippi and Illinois and worked as a community pharmacist in Stiehl Drugs; Collinsville, Illinois (1960-1961).
While a pharmacy student, Bob was approached by two students to attend a Kappa Psi rush event called a “Smoker” that was held in one of the campus buildings in the fall of 1957. Bob had a pregnant wife and one daughter and wasn’t interested in joining a fraternity, but decided to go with a couple of his pharmacy buddies to see what Kappa Psi had to offer. He was surprised to see faculty members present: Dr. Austin Dodge, Dr. Lewis Nobles, Dr. Elmer Hammond, Dean of the School of Pharmacy, and especially to learn that they were Kappa Psi. The Beta Rho officers and members were dressed in blazers, slack, white shirts and ties, and conducted the meeting in a very professional manner. Bob was impressed with the way the Regent conducted the meeting and gave an interesting presentation on the history of Kappa Psi while the faculty told stories about their experiences and why they joined Kappa Psi. This display of professionalism influenced Bob’s decision to join and he was initiated into Beta Rho in March 1958. In spring, 1959, Brother Grand Regent Milton Neuroth made a chapter visitation to Beta Rho. Bob was a little intimated at first meeting the top brass of the Fraternity, but Milton was kind and friendly. While in Pharmacy School, Bob worked in Billy Peel’s Drug Store in Holly Springs.
After nearly twenty months in community pharmacy, Brother Magarian along with his wife Charmaine, who was pregnant with their fourth child, returned to Ole Miss to work on his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry. Ironically, his major professor was Dr. Lewis Nobles, the Kappa Psi Faculty Brother he met at the “Smoker.” Bob received the Ph.D. in 1966 from Ole Miss and went to the University of Kansas as a post-doctoral fellow with the noted chemist Dr. Edward Smissman in 1966-67. Bob began his teaching career as Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy (1967-1970). In July, 1970, Bob joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy as Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and eight years later in 1978 was promoted to Professor
Brother Magarian has published over one hundred research articles and abstracts, has several book chapters, eleven patents, trained post-doctoral students, and graduated Ph.D. and Master Students during his thirty years as a faculty member. He has received the College of Pharmacy Outstanding Teaching Award in 1974 & 1976 and the Baldwin Teaching Award in 1978, which allowed him to pay his way to Oxford, England where he presented two papers at the Second International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry. He retired from the University of Oklahoma in June 1996, earning the title of Professor Emeritus of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacy awarded by the OU Board of Regents.
In 2007, the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center established a special award in Bob’s honor: The HSC Student Association Dr. Robert Magarian Faculty Award, approved by President David Boren, to honor an outstanding faculty member from the five colleges in the HSC, selected by the students. “The award honors a faculty member students consider to be outstanding in the areas of teaching, mentoring, and service activities or professional activities representing the same characteristics exhibited by Dr. Magarian, HSC Emeritus Professor and active community leader.”
Dr. Magarian has a long history of Kappa Psi involvement beginning at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy where he reactivated the Gamma Omicron Chapter in 1971. During the post initiation celebration that happened in the backyard cookout of the Dean’s home, Bob took the opportunity to mention to Grand Regent Bill Fitzpatrick (1974-79) that he was interested in the Executive Director’s position if it ever became available. Nine years later, it would become a reality.
As the faculty advisor of Gamma Omicron (1971-80), Dr. Magarian attended his first Province VII meeting in St. Louis in March 1972 where he met Brothers Paul Knecht and Johnny Porter, a student at Southwestern Oklahoma State University College of Pharmacy. He remembers Johnny with long hair and dark-rimmed glasses sporting a Charles Dickens’s Bowler.
In August, 1979, Dr. Magarian attended his first Grand Council Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona, which was the 100th Anniversary of the Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, Inc. where he met his friend and Brother from their Ole Miss days, Dr. Dewey D. Garner. At this convention, Bob submitted a bid for the Executive Director’s position, offering support from the dean and facilities at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy in Oklahoma City. Bob had read in The Mask that the current executive director was running for a national office, so Bob took that to mean that he was no longer interested in the position. However, Bob learned during the pre-executive committee meeting that the executive director’s position wasn’t open.
During the convention, the Century Club Reception and Dinner were held, and Dr. Magarian made the recommendation to continue support of our Fraternity into the second century by instituting the “Bicentennial Club,” which would allow willing givers to contribute $500 over a five-year period. Seventy-five percent of the monies collected were to be placed in the endowment fund and the remaining monies to be used for general operating expenditures. The recommendation was adopted.
In early January 1980, the Executive Director’s position became available and Grand Regent Garner appointed Dr. Magarian as the 11th Executive Director of the Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, Inc. Magarian’s dream of becoming the executive director had come true, and now on the 28th of the month, he and his wife, Charmaine, his administrative assistant, were waiting in the three empty rooms in a building at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy that had become the new Central Office, for the van delivering the office furniture from Stockton, California. During the wait, Bob began feeling anxious, wondering if he had done the right thing, accepting the job. He never gave it any thought before accepting, whether he could organize and supervise the office. After several deep breaths and looking over at his wife, Bob began to feel better, realizing that she, with years of office experience working for assistant deans and directors of departments at Ole Miss, would carry him until he learned the duties of the position. And, of course, there was Grand Regent Garner, the Brother with years of fraternal experience and exceptional knowledgeable in financial matters. With these two persons behind him, Dr. Magarian knew he would be okay.
Through the twenty-and-a-half years as Executive Director, Brother Magarian remembers some of the highlights: 1.) He worked with nine amazing Grand Regents; 2.) He developed a software program for the membership of Kappa Psi with the help of his brother Ed; 3.) He was instrumental in working with faculty and student leaders at ten new schools of pharmacy to institute a pledge program, prepare a charter and finally the installation of the ten new Kappa Psi chapters: [Delta Kappa, Howard University; Delta Lambda, Campbell University; Delta Mu, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Delta Nu, Midwestern University; Delta Xi, Shenandoah University; Delta Omicron, Wilkes University; Delta Pi, Texas Tech, Amarillo; Delta Rho, Nova Southeastern University; Delta Sigma, Midwestern University, Arizona; Delta Tau, University of Southern Nevada]; 4.) He organized twenty APhA Kappa Psi Receptions and manned the Kappa Psi Booths at each yearly meeting; 5.) He organized and co-hosted ten Grand Council Conventions (40th-49th) and was the convention secretary during the GCC’s’ General Sessions; 6.) During the 42nd Grand Council Convention at South Padre, Island, Texas in 1985, Dr. Dewey D. Garner and Bob Magarian were honored by The Grand Council with the “Citation of Appreciation Award”.
Charmaine Magarian was honored at the 43rd GCC in Williamsburg, Virginia as the “Kappa Psi Sweetheart”, an award well-deserved for a loyal and devoted Kappa Psi worker, and during the Anniversary Banquet at the 45th GCC in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Grand Regent William R. Smith and the “Oxford Quartet” sang the Kappa Psi Sweetheart song to Charmaine. She along with Bob will never forget their kindness. He feels such an act was exemplary of what Kappa Psi is all about---loving thy neighbor; 8.) Bob had never felt as attached to the Fraternity as that day in June 1996 when the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy faculty and staff and friends celebrated Dr. Magarian’s retirement from the college. To his surprise, the members of the Executive Committee and other Brothers came to Dr. Magarian’s Retirement Party: Grand Regent, John Grossomanides presented Bob with a Mont Blanc fountain pen from the Fraternity; Dr. Patrick R. Wells; Dr. Craig Johnston; Johnny Porter; Charles Carden; Paul Knecht; Paul Hiller; Brian Furbush; William R. Smith; and Dr. Dewey D. Garner, who gave Bob an Ole Miss sweat shirt.
Four years later on June 30, 2000, Dr. Magarian remembers that day as one of the saddest in his and Charmaine’s lives. They were losing a friend. It was the day the movers came to The Central Office at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy HSC, OKC, to move the office to Weatherford, Oklahoma ninety miles away where the new Central Office was going to be housed. Bob sat in his high-back chair, watching the movers as they removed the boxes and furniture from the office. When the room was about three-fourths empty, a surreal feeling overcame Brother Magarian. Images of the past twenty-and-a-half years in the Fraternity as the Executive Director flashed through his mind. Depression tried its best to creep in and tears had formed in the corner of his eyes. Where had all the years gone? The many hours Bob and Charmaine had spent in The Central Office, all the wonderful Brothers they had met and worked with were to become memories now. They say that life goes on, but not without some pain at times. Feeling no longer needed is a tough price to pay.
When the last item was removed from The Central Office and the doors were closed, Bob and Charmaine looked at each other with tears in their eyes, and said, “Life goes on and we have many happy memories.”
Brother Magarian leaves you with some words of wisdom: “Remember, you are better than you think you are. God has a plan for your life. Trust Him.”