in the room, but you didn ' t hear that from him. He was a gifted, lovely, thoughtful man who was all about giving back.”
Assadour Ohanes Tavitian, known to all as“ Aso,” was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, to parents who were survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide. His well-to-do family had lost not only all their material possessions, but also the lives of their loved ones. They rebuilt their fortunes in Bulgaria, to only lose their possessions once again to the Communists when they took over Bulgaria at the end of the Second World War.
He arrived with his family in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1959. After learning English from an Armenian English high school teacher in Beirut, Tavitian was accepted at Haigazian College on a full scholarship but couldn’ t afford his living expenses. He was facing the real possibility of not being able to pursue his education, until an anonymous benefactor altered his life. Tavitian later learned that his English teacher of minimal means made his education possible.
The generosity impacted Tavitian for a lifetime. He later established what is called The Tavitian Scholars Program at Tufts University, which provides a semester of education for mid-career government officials in the Republic of Armenia. He also supported the Armenian Church in many ways. The government of Armenia recognized his contributions and awarded him the Order of Honor and the Prime Minister’ s Medal.
Tavitian came to America from Beirut to attend Columbia University on a full scholarship, receiving a bachelor of science degree and later a master’ s in nuclear engineering. He thought he wanted to be a
Opposite page, exquisite paintings and sculptures were gifted by The Tavitian Foundation to The Met, The Frick, and the Clark. Clockwise from top left, Francesco Salviati, Bindo Altoviti( 1491 – 1557), The Met; Claude-Joseph Vernet, Thine Falls, near Schaffhausen, Switzerland( 1779), the Clark; Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Countess Matilda of Canossa( c. 1630 – 39), the Clark; Jean-Pierre Dantan, Younger Niccolo Paganini, the Clark; Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portrait of a Woman( c. 1575), The Frick; and Jean Antoine Houdon, Little Lise( 1775), the Clark. scientist, but that changed when he became involved in one of the first independent software companies. He was among five college graduates— from NYU, Stevens Tech, and Columbia— who joined Duane Whitlow and Stan Rintel in their startup company.
Tavitian was scraping by at the time, working as a taxi driver, playing bridge for money, and driving around in a beat-up Mercury Cougar. So he joined the company in Teaneck, New Jersey, and became so committed that he dropped the doctoral thesis he was working on. While some of his business partners were working on an airline reservation system, Tavitian was beginning to develop a mainframe sorting system.
Eventually, he realized they were onto something big and needed to begin marketing the company. They invited what was then Chemical Bank and set up a benchmark test with IBM, which led to a cover story in Computerworld. The article highlighted the product’ s ability to cut IBM ' s sort times in half with a drop-in replaceable sort. The headline couldn’ t fit“ Synchronized,” so it read“ Synch Sort.”
“ From that one article, we got over 400 letters wanting to know more about Synch Sort,” says Harvey Tessler, a partner in the company and a close friend of Tavitian’ s.“ We dropped the‘ h’ and took the two capital letters, and that was the name of the product, SyncSort.”
Tavitian wanted SyncSort to engage in multi-year leases paid in advance of the software. When leases renewed, the price would increase by a small percentage. It was brilliant. SyncSort became the dominant sort program for IBM mainframe computers in the late-1970s and continued up until the present day.
From 1975 to 2008, Tavitian was CEO of SyncSort. Largely responsible for the company’ s growth, he realized that the only way to continue making money was to keep improving the data sorting product and investing more than anyone else in the industry.
“ He also knew how to build a company that treated people right,” says Tessler. The company continued to thrive, and Tavitian eventually sold a large portion of his stake to a group of venture capital investors. He continued to serve on the company ' s board of directors through 2015, when he sold his minority stake. In May 2020, SyncSort rebranded itself as Precisely.
Tavitian’ s wife, Arlene, whom he met on a subway, worked as a teacher in New Jersey. Their love for the Berkshires started when they would go for weekends there. They bought a property on Prospect Hill Road in Stockbridge, next to Naumkeag, which had once belonged to dancer and actress Marge Champion Sagal. The existing home was razed, and five years later, they had a newly constructed five-bedroom home with nine fireplaces, a media room, wine cellar, fitness studio, wraparound tiered terraces, pool with pool house, and three-bedroom guesthouse.
In 1997, Tavitian also bought a 1910 Manhattan townhouse designed by C. P. H. Gilbert for $ 11.5 million. The structure previously had been turned into offices and apartments, and Tavitian returned the townhouse to its former glory as a single-family home. Arlene died before the renovations were completed.
A widower at age 62, Tavitian dated here and there. Then, while on a trip to the Hamptons, he met Isabella Meisinger, who worked in an antique shop. They hit it off and were together through the end of his life.
THE ART COLLECTION
As he furnished his homes, Tavitian found himself spending more and more time researching and learning about art collecting— so much so that he became immersed in the art world. Meisinger was with Tavitian through his primary collecting years.
“ He was the absolute dream partner,” says Meisinger.“ Aso was passionate about everything, not only about paintings. He had a fantastic collection of 18th century English furniture, a fantastic collection of ivory. He bought a lot of miniatures. His portraits were very unique, so he unknowingly developed a great portrait collection. It was such a wonderful journey.”
Tavitian collected portraits from 1450 to 1850. Each fall, he and Meisinger hosted a dinner party at their East 79th Street home and invited art dealers who were in the city for the art show at the Park Avenue Armory. The couple visited fine art and antique galleries, auction houses, and museums. A favorite of Tavitian’ s was The European Fine Art Fair( TEFAF), held in mid-March in Maastricht, Netherlands.
He surrounded himself with people in the art world, such as David Bull, a conser-
14 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE May / June 2025