Chant Hagopian

Chant grew up in Gemmayze, and attended "Collège Saintes Hripsimiantz" – Fanar. After his graduation, he went to the Lebanese American University for a whole year, before traveling to Belgium to complete his Bachelor and Master's degrees in Business Administration. He returned to Lebanon afterwards, to run his father’s steel design workshop.

Chant worked hard to develop and improve their family business, and secure a bright future for his son Christopher (5), and daughter Anya (11).

Chant was popular and amiable. He thought of others before his own. He was generous and giving with the needy. If one of his employees was going through a rough patch, he would stand by him/her, financially and emotionally. He will forever be remembered for his kindness and compassion. Everyone who knew him cried over his passing, and remembered his captivating smile that was his passport into people's hearts.

How could you not remember him this way, when he had so much love to give?

For 24 years, Chant worked as an Operations Manager at HATCO, the company that felt like home, and where he spent more than half his life. Usually, Chant stays in the workshop until 7:30PM, but on that gruesome Tuesday afternoon, he left early to go to Faqra where his family was spending the summer. He first passed by his apartment in Mar Mikhael to pack a few things before driving to Kesserwan.

He arrived home around 5:45 PM and heard from his neighbors about a fire at the Port of Beirut. He asked the building's concierge to open the door to the rooftop at the 12^th floor, and they went up together to watch the fire. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion and it took the life of Chant and that of the concierge.

They weren’t found until an hour and a half later, but they had already passed away.

As a result to the blast, Chant's kidney stopped working, ending his life in Beirut's disaster. Beirut, the city he loved and decided never to leave again, and in which he wished to fulfill his ambition to make Lebanon great again.