Byron Mardiros Ishkanian passed away into the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ on November 18, 2021. Byron was born in Pasadena, California to Armenian parents who fled their Armenian home enclave in Hadjin, Turkey after the Genocide against the Christian Armenians during World War I.
Byron grew up in the Los Angeles area and was an intelligent, athletic child and young man. He loved to play chess, backgammon and was, at one time, the second fastest sprinter in the City of Los Angeles.
Byron attended Pasadena City College and then later UCLA where he played football as a Bruin and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Geology. He also studied petroleum engineering at USC.
In the early 1950s he joined the US Army and became part of the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). His duties included maintaining surveillance on the post WWII landscape of Europe – and especially the boundary between West Germany and newly formed Eastern Block of the Soviet Union. After his tour in the Army he came back to Los Angeles and finished his education at UCLA.
He started his career with the Southern California Gas Company and then moved his career to the State of California, Department of Industrial Relations where he first specialized in oil and gas drilling safety and engineering. It was during his tenure with the State that Byron married Judith Finch and the couple moved to Santa Barbara, CA and started a family.
After a decade or so, he then moved to the State of California Mining and Tunnel Safety Unit and eventually was the Principal Engineer of the Mining and Tunneling Safety Department for several decades. He pioneered many safety measures that are used today in underground work. These measures included novel methods of drilling through hazardous ground, ventilation and underground structural safety. His methods were codified in some of the first ever underground safety orders written for the industry. These orders have been emulated all over the USA.
After retiring from the State of California, Byron worked with the Rapid Transit District (RTD) of Los Angeles on the construction of the Metro Rail project – the first subway project in Los Angeles. He was an integral safety and design engineer and stayed through the completion of the first multi-mile segment of the line with a stellar safety record. This is no small feat considering the tunneling work crossed multiple oil and gas fields.
A lifelong athlete, Byron loved playing handball (until he was 80!) and swam in the ocean every day that he could. He loved travel and spoke German, Armenian, some Turkish and Spanish.
He is survived by his wife Judith (married 60 years) of Santa Barbara, CA and their son Roy of Billings, MT and daughters Jill (Vince Riello) of Los Angeles, CA and Elinor (Carlos Duque), also of Los Angeles, CA and their two children Claire 22 and Olivia 18.
Byron loved his family, his country and his home in Santa Barbara. He will be missed by many and will always be loved by those who knew him.
A memorial service will be held in his honor at 11:00 AM on December 21, 2021 at the El Montecito Presbyterian Church, located at 1455 East Valley Road in Montecito, CA.
