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“I decided early on,” he once said, “that you have to get the attention of the public. You’ve got to get them to follow you.”

“And you can only do that by being bigger than life.”

It was good advice for a man aspiring to be the mayor of America’s largest, most energetic city. And it was an attitude that made New York Mayor Edward I. Koch one of the most colorful political figures of his day.

During his tenure as mayor, from the late 1970s through the 1980s, he was also a great friend of St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, and was a frequent visitor to the Diocesan Center—especially during the days of the “One World Festival,” which populated the area around the cathedral with the city’s most diverse annual street fair.

Mayor Koch had received his introduction to the community through the late, great Sam Azadian (who was as much a personification of the Armenian-American community as Koch himself was of New York as a whole). But it was his friendship with the Diocesan Primate of the time, Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, which city natives will remember most fondly.

Like Koch, Archbishop Torkom also appreciated the need for effective public figures to be “bigger than life,” and without ever impinging on the dignity of his office, he led an effort to raise the profile of the Armenian Church on the American stage. The mayor and the archbishop seemed to recognize a kinship of spirit between them, and greeted each other as old friends whenever they met.

Koch, for his part, would refer to Archbishop Torkom as his “spiritual advisor”—a remark that would invariably draw smiles from his listeners, but which reflected the respect he had for the archbishop, and acknowledged his stature among the spiritual leaders of New York City.

Earlier today, February 1, 2013, Ed Koch passed away, at the age of 88. May he rest in peace.

Archbishop Torkom Manoogian welcomes New York Mayor Ed Koch to St. Vartan Cathedral. At the far right of the picture is Sam Azadian.