In memory of Vaughan H. Totovian
Vaughan H. Totovian, a lifelong resident of Watertown and a civil engineer behind many of the most essential public transportation projects in Massachusetts’ history, passed away on Feb. 9 at age 66. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years.
Totovian, the husband of Lily (Tossounian), was a graduate of Watertown High School and Northeastern University, where he completed a degree in civil engineering in 1981. Over the next quarter century, Totovian worked on and completed numerous projects that re-made highway and public transportation history in Greater Boston.
His projects included the Big Dig, which submerged the overhead main travel route through Boston into a tunnel; the entrance to the Ted Williams Tunnel, which provided a second artery to Logan Airport by extending the Massachusetts Turnpike to East Boston and points north; the Boston Engine terminal in Somerville; commuter rail stations between Canton and Fall River; and the easing of monumental Cape Cod traffic jams from the rotary at Sagamore Bridge.
While civil engineering is a collaborative effort, largely the result of consensus among numerous professionals, Totovian stood out as an ultimate authority because of his technical expertise and a historic memory, said several co-workers.
“He was simply a genius in reading plans. He saw problems before anyone else did—and solutions, as well,” said Richard Ferrante, who worked beside Totovian at L.W. Lochner between 1993 and 2001. “He was our miracle worker.”
Michel Issa, another colleague on the Big Dig project, added: “In many meetings, Vaughan’s voice was the most insistent that we had a responsibility for the public and ourselves to make sure we’d done everything the right way.”
One such breakthrough he authored solved the problem of how to maintain southbound traffic emerging from the Dewey Square tunnel while rebuilding a mile-long stretch of the Expressway. Totovian’s fix was to reroute the traffic over a short bridge and then onto Harrison Avenue and a road that paralleled the Expressway.
Such extensive projects present a continued sequence of complications, and Totovian’s co-workers remember his ability to roll with the most serious of them. Vincent Nguyen recalled the time Totovian realized that a planned cement pillar upholding a portion of the Expressway would have been erected in the driveway of a gas station, 100 feet away from its intended location.
“Vaughan saw it before any of us did,” Nguyen said. “But that’s the way he worked. He had the greatest confidence in his skills.”
Yet it was his final project, modernizing the rotary at Sagamore Bridge, that gave Totovian the most satisfaction. With his two brothers, Totovian bought a summer home in Falmouth and was experiencing first-hand the mind-numbing ordeal of getting on and off the Cape on summer weekends.
In 2001, he was hired as project lead engineer by a state joint venture to come up with the fix, and by 2005, the work was completed. The rotary that had stalled traffic for generations was discarded, and two highways were able to pass one another on their own roads.
“The design Vaughan’s team worked out for it was perfect,” said Ferrante, Totovian’s co-worker and friend.
Vaughan exhibited such know-how from his youngest years. His wife Lily showed me a letter he wrote in 1972 at age 14 to then Massachusetts Governor Francis Sargent after noticing from volunteering at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown that many of the students were fearful of crossing busy intersections along Arsenal Street or in Watertown Square.
As he told Sargent in his letter, Totovian had devised a fix: set up devices at the busiest intersections that emitted loud buzzes as well as metal tracks that would accommodate the tip of a blind person’s cane and allow them to cross safely.
That ability to use his technical skills to overcome everyday adversities was common for Totovian. When technology first arrived with home products like Atari, Totovian disassembled the equipment and told the company that its software would never develop beyond kids’ games unless they figured out how to show images and type on the screen. The Atari executive offered him a job over the phone.
While he let that opportunity go by, Totovian was intrigued by the idea of developing a handheld device that used electricity to perform simple household chores while the occupant was out of the house. Think of Alexa before the Internet. In fact, Totovian developed a device to turn his television on and off at his Watertown home, open and close the shades, and control the thermostat, all through home automation technologies.
Lily, who began dating Vaughan in 2004, said she started calling him “boy genius” soon after their marriage in 2007 because of his numerous inventive ideas when remodeling their home. He would also bring home highway blueprints from work to show her the progress that he and his team of engineers were making on a project.
Vaughan’s technical skills likely came from his father, Kayzag Totovian. Raised in Marseille, Kayzag was a builder of racing bikes as a youth. He joined the French Resistance at the outset of World War II, and upon moving to the United States in 1940, joined the U.S. Army Intelligence Service.
From his mother, Isabelle (Gureghian) Totovian, the first woman to become trustee of St. James Armenian Church, he would have inherited his confident manner and a passion for knowing right from wrong.
And from his brothers, James Totovian, who died in 2018, and Mark Totovian, Vaughan gained an enthusiastic love of sports, whether competing with friends or following Boston’s professional sports teams.
In addition to the friends he made in his profession, Totovian shared his life with a rich circle of friends, much built around his association with St. James Armenian Church and its ties to the Armenian Church Youth Organization of America. It was also through the youth organization that he first became acquainted with Lily Tossounian, who was living with her family in Toronto, and again as adults at a sports weekend.
In his eulogy for Totovian at St. James Church, Der. Shnork Souin, retired pastor at St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Armenian Church, reflected on the large number of friends that he maintained during his lifetime and who came to his service.
“Such rich friendships are part of the miracle of the Armenian diaspora here in the new world,” said Der Shnork, a lifelong family friend of Lily’s. “Faith and fellowship brighten our days and ease the pain from such a loss.”
Stephen Kurkjian, a 40-year veteran reporter for The Boston Globe, was Vaughan Totovian’s first cousin.
Stephen Kurkjian
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Stephen K’s wonderful and sincere summary of the genius life well led by
Vaughan T will keep Vaughan’s memory clear to all of us in years to follow.
Robert Shvodian (Stephen’s cousin).
I’m very sad to hear this news. I met Vaughan through Saint James Parish Council. Despite his many accomplishments, he was a modest and very kind man. My sincere condolences to Lily, Mark, Stephen and all his family. Asdvadz hokin loosavore.
So sorry to hear of Vaughan’s passing. Such a kind and friendly person. Very easy to converse and relate with. He will be missed. My condolences to Vaughan’s family and friends.
Asdvadz hokeen lusavoreh 🙏