PASSINGS: Ed Bedrosian

Ed V. Bedrosian, 92, founder of the Fresno, Calif.-based Bedrosians tile-and-stone company, of a heart attack on Nov. 29.

Bedrosian and spouse Helen founded the namesake tile and contracting buisness in 1948. The business grew to its current statures as one of the largest independent tile/stone companies in the nation, with 32 facilities in eight states.

Ed V. BedrosianThe only son among four daughters, Vruyr Bedrosian was born Feb. 17, 1920, to Armenian immigrants Mihran and Arshalous Bedrosian in Fresno. The family lived among the city’s strong Armenian community, but when children at school teased him about his first name, his mother suggested borrowing their neighbor’s: Ed.

Bedrosian learned the tile trade in Los Angeles in the late 1930s and early 1940s, earning his contractors license in 1941. He enlisted in the U.S. Army that same year, serving until 1945.

He married the former Alice Michigian on Jan. 3, 1948; later that year, they founded their tile company and ran it out of their Fresno home. Bedrosian focused more on tile sales, expanding to the California Central Valley cities of Modesto and Sacramento in 1973. Since then, the company added locations in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington with 29 stores and three warehouses/distribution centers.

Bedrosian turned the company over to his children in 1974, but remained active until a month before his passing. Helen Bedrosian died of ovarian cancer in November 2011.

Survivors include two sons, Larry and Gary; two daughters, Janice Bedrosian and Linda Hovannisian; sister Gertrude Kazarian; 13 grandchildren; and 4 great-grandchildren.

Services and burial were held Dec. 5 in Fresno. Memorials may be made to the Holy Trinity Apostolic Church in Fresno.