Good Neighbors: Harry Boyajian

A Reinvented Life

An On Top of the World resident learned a long time ago that life’s ups and downs keep you going. Harry Boyajian has been a photographer, a musician, and a salesman in a long and varied career. He wouldn’t have changed a thing.

BY AMANDA CLARK-RUDOLPH

You know how Forrest Gump met all those amazing people and completed one incredible event after another? That’s what I thought of when speaking with this amazing entertainer, photographer, and veteran.

But unlike the movies, Harry Boyajian is incredibly genuine. I had the honor to follow up with him and his wife, Donna, in their home in On Top of the World, and although Donna was adamant that this was all Harry’s story, she’s a huge part of it, too. The love and respect they had for each other was evident as Donna sat with Harry on the couch, her bare feet nudging him as he expanded on his emotional stories that could quickly fill a paperback memoir.

However, for the sake of this article, I’m condensing his narrative into sections. You see, as Harry says, he’s always reinventing himself, and through these snippets of his life, you’ll understand what that means.

When I first sat down to write this piece, I was hung up on the chronologicality of it all, but Harry’s words echoed in my mind: “I’m concerned with the details, not the order.” That stuck with me, and I realized that Harry’s story has less to do with a timeline than it does with the interwoven themes that illustrate the lessons of an incredible and constantly reinvented life.

So let’s start with his first love (after Donna, of course): photography. Pictures of birds, ships, and skies fill Harry’s living room.

“Photographing birds is a lot easier than photographing people,” Harry says, “they don’t complain as much.”

I could have spent all day analyzing the works and for good reason— Harry’s photography isn’t just a hobby. He once had his own studio, photographed weddings full time, and has works that appear in galleries.

When asked how he got into photography, he told me it started in junior high around 1956. His gym teacher taught a summer photography class and asked Harry to join. “And,” Harry shares, “I just fell in love with it.”

He recalled bringing his Brownie camera on vacation to Cape Cod where he enthusiastically snapped pictures of lighthouses and monuments, but photography didn’t become a steady part of his life until leaving college early to join the Navy. There he took advantage of the duty-free camera equipment and snapped beautiful photos of Puerto Rico.

Mentioning the Navy sparks another memory, and Harry veers away from photography for a moment to tell an emotional story about the Gemini 9A spaceship’s recovery mission, when he was serving on a ship called the USS Wasp.

“We all gathered for a service on deck because everyone thought the astronauts were lost.” Harry tells me that he remembers hearing one sailor sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and then being jolted by the sonic boom. Harry’s eyes well up as he expresses the moment when he looked up to see the parachutes gliding down.

Astronauts Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan had made it. “Powerful,” Harry says as he speaks. “Powerful,” he repeats. Harry’s sensitivity resonates throughout the interview. Then, after pausing for a minute, Harry revisits his journey into photography, which also involves technology.

Turns out, computers were a big part of Harry’s life, too, and he held numerous tech jobs. While working with Burroughs Corporation, an employee asked him to photograph her wedding. He did, and after the client provided a referral, business took off. Harry decided to completely self-teach himself and study up on wedding photography. “Weddings are predictable sequences—it’s not rocket science,” he tells me. “You get ready, go to the church, and then have the reception.”

Soon after, Harry decided to walk away from his computer job at Mason- Neilan to start up a studio in the early ‘80s. He had freelancers who worked for him, and his business would sometimes photograph an impressive 13 weddings a weekend. Harry himself has photographed over 3,500 weddings.

Unfortunately, a couple of unlucky business decisions caused him to close the studio, resulting in a stressful time for Harry and his family. He ended up taking a break from photography until earning a position for LifeTouch in 2000 where he photographed church directories. That ended up being his last job before retiring in 2011.

Another huge aspect of Harry’s life involves music. Harry discovered his musical talents through the trumpet in grade school. He was even a member of his high school jazz and marching band. And, get this, he played for Les and Larry Elgart as a fill-in and auditioned for Stan Kenton’s orchestra to replace Maynard Ferguson. Harry also rocked his trumpet in the Navy where he was part of a swing band, then retired the instrument after leaving the service.

However, this wasn’t the end of Harry’s musical career. One evening after picking up Donna from a charity event at the local mall, he informed her of his “scheme” to buy a keyboard. Donna agreed as long as it was something she “didn’t have to dust.” They went to the keyboard store that night. He was 60 when he self-taught himself to play the instrument. He loved entertaining others, but in 2014, he had a stroke that left him unable to play with his right hand.

Harry didn’t give up. No, instead, he reinvented himself once again. Using a laptop for background music, he focused on his singing. Harry entertained at assisted living homes, churches, and a restaurant in Fort Myers (where he once resided) and later in Ocala, including Brentwood, Life Care Center of Ocala, and Bridgewater. He still performs for the community, and you might hear him belting out songs by Frank Sinatra, Bryan Adams, Dean Martin, or Kenny Chesney. He knows them all.

It's then Harry veers away from the arts to discuss another surprising aspect of his life: sales. One major theme with Harry is persistence, a characteristic that served him well throughout his sales career.

Harry first ventured into sales while studying at Northeastern University in Boston. There he saw an ad to sell encyclopedias and make $500 a week. He enthusiastically took the job and did so well that his father thought he was doing something illegal. Harry’s laughs turn serious as he notes that this was a dangerous time to be a door-todoor salesman because it was when the Boston Strangler was causing fear in the area.

Later, Harry was adamant to get a job for the company that was responsible for all of Sears home improvements. He told the manager that he wouldn’t stop calling until he was hired. Eventually he was.

Harry ended up making a quota in six months, which typically took a year. His efforts even won him a trip to Cancun. The company eventually transferred and promoted him to Pennsylvania as a branch manager. There, he took the division from 96th to 2nd place. Unsurprisingly, he received the “Manager of the Year” award. Twice.

When asked, “How do you sell all of this stuff?” He responds, “Every salesman does his pitch in the living room, but I did it in the kitchen. Pretty soon you’re eating cookies, and you’re no longer a stranger. You’re family.”

Something else Harry did differently was coming back for the installation, and admirably, he was never high-pressure. “Most sales associates defend the price,” he offers. “But you never defend the price—you acknowledge it.”

Harry Boyajian

Photo by Amanda Clark-Rudolph

His business quotes are clever and inspiring, so it makes sense that he used to present at sales seminars. Yes, Harry was a motivational public speaker, too.

In another twist, while working for this company, they encountered legal challenges, were forced to close unexpectedly, and he was responsible for telling all of the employees to pack up because they lost their jobs. This all happened in less than two days. Harry takes a breath and says, “That was the hardest thing I ever did.”

Around that time, Harry had forgotten about a resume he’d posted online and he received a call from the photography company Lifetouch. He says that job “saved” him.

“All these experiences made me better at relating to people,” he says, “and made me a better photographer.”

In many ways, life comes back full circle. According to Harry, the people within our stories shape us and make the narrative come alive.

So who are the key people in your story? And when should you consider reinventing yourself once again?