The Mugar family of

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, is an

Armenian-American Armenian Americans () are citizens or residents of the United States who have total or partial Armenian ancestry. They form the second largest community of the Armenian diaspora after Armenians in Russia. The first major wave of Armenian immig ...

family in New England business and in philanthropy, both in the United States and Armenia. The best known member of the family is Stephen P. Mugar (1901–1982), who founded the

Star Market Star Market is a New England chain of supermarkets based in Greater Boston. It was owned by the Mugar family and started in 1915. The company was sold to The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1964 and later to Investcorp, which in turn sold the chain t ...

chain of supermarkets on which the family fortune was based. In its May 2004 issue, ''Boston'' magazine ranked the Mugar family sixth in its list of the 50 most influential Boston families.

Family origin

The first family members to arrive in Boston were brothers, Charles and Martin Mugar (shortened from ''Mugardichian''), who came from

Kharpert Harpoot () or Kharberd () is an ancient town located in the Elazığ Province of Turkey. It now forms a small district of the city of Elazığ. p. 1. In the late Ottoman period, it fell under the Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet (also known as the Harput ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, in 1904. They were joined in 1906 by their brothers, Arthur, Gregory and Sarkis Mugar, along with Sarkis Mugar's wife and three children, one of whom was Stephen P. Mugar.

Family members

* Stephen P. Mugar, (1901–1982) founder of the

chain * John M. Mugar, (1914–2007), son of Martin, President and Chairman of the Star Market chain. * David G. Mugar, (1939–2022), Stephen's son, also became a Star Market executive and was a prominent businessman and philanthropist in his own right. *

Carolyn Mugar Carolyn Mugar (born c. 1943) is an American activist of Armenian descent, best known for founding the Armenia Tree Project and for serving as the executive director of Farm Aid. She is a prominent member of the Mugar family of Greater Boston. B ...

, Stephen's daughter, activist, is founder of the

Armenia Tree Project Armenia Tree Project (ATP) is a non-profit organization based in Watertown, Massachusetts, United States, and Yerevan, Armenia, founded in 1994 by Carolyn Mugar to promote Armenia's socioeconomic development through reforestation. Since its foun ...

, executive director of

Farm Aid Farm Aid is an annual benefit concert held for American farmers. History On July 13, 1985, before performing "When The Ship Comes In" with Keith Richards and Ron Wood at the Live Aid benefit concert for the 1983–1985 Ethiopian famine, B ...

and is the president of the Armenian Assembly of America.

Philanthropies

The major objects of Mugar family philanthropic giving have been: *Greater Boston educational institutions, especially the so-called "subway" or "commuter" colleges and universities, because they were the first to welcome young Armenian-Americans and others with limited resources and social standing and because they lacked the vast endowments of schools such as

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. *Hospitals, in particular

Cape Cod Hospital Cape Cod Hospital is a not-for-profit regional medical center located in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, as of 2011 it is the largest hospital on Cape Cod. The administration is headed by CEO Michael K. Lauf. The hospital has 283 beds ...

, and *Armenian causes in the United States and overseas in Armenia and Lebanon. *Boston's Fourth of July fireworks celebration—since the mid-1970s, closely associated with the

Boston Pops The Boston Pops is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orc ...

concert at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the

Esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

References

{{Armenian diaspora, state=collapsed Armenian-American culture in Massachusetts American families of Armenian ancestry American people of Armenian descent Business families of the United States American socialites Families from Massachusetts Armenian families People from Greater Boston