I received a phone call on the eve of the 4th of
July while we had gathered with family to barbeque, as most in the US do,
on Independence day. The call was from my cousin in Paris, giving me
the news that my uncle, Fatollah Minbashian had passed away half an hour before
his call. Telling my mother the news was very difficult; however, I was
relieved that she was with us when we got the news so that we could console her
a bit.
General Minbashian in 1972
Fatollah Minbashian was truly a great man, from a
different era. As a child, he always reminded me of James Bond, and I
always wanted to be like him, for he was handsome, talented, an athlete (goal
keeper for the Iranian national soccer team), a poet, a songwriter, a musician
(virtuoso violinist), spoke several languages fluently, and the list goes on and
on. In terms of his career, he was a 5 star general
(Arteshbod) Commander of the Iranian Armed forces until 1974 when he left
the armed forces and retired in Paris. Most importantly he loved Iran and
the army, not the institution as much as the individual soldiers that comprised
it. He cared for their living conditions, their salaries, their health
care and was always surprised why more was not being done by the
government they were serving, to make their lives better.
Readers who are too young to remember his
great service to his country, may remember his name since two of the
songs he had written in his youth, "Anzaman" and "Negahe-Yar-e
Man" that I re-recorded were presented here in the recent
past. I am honored to be able to keep his memory alive through these songs.
We will all miss him dearly.
... Payvand News - 7/9/07 ... --
