Hirair Hovnanian, president and founder of Hovsons, Inc., died April 8, 2021, at the age of 90. From his arrival on a freighter in 1951, Mr. Hovnanian built one of the most successful privately held land and housing development companies in the country. In recent years, he had dedicated his time and efforts to the betterment of New Jersey and to the Armenian-American community.
A 1956 Villanova University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Mr. Hovnanian began his career with a consulting firm constructing the Connecticut Turnpike. In 1958, after seeing a cousin’s home being built in Toms River, Mr. Hovnanian moved there and started building homes. He was later joined by his brothers. After several successful years working with his brothers, Hirair Hovnanian broke out on his own and formed Hovsons, Inc. in 1963.
Within the first year, Mr. Hovnanian built 74 homes and noticed that 80 percent of his buyers were retirees. That was an epiphany that changed his future. Mr. Hovnanian is referred to in books as one of the innovators of the concept of large-scale adult communities of single-family homes located on individual lots. This bold move became very successful, and the communities grew and grew, later becoming mixed-use communities including recreational, medical and commercial facilities. Over tens of thousands of adult community homes and home sites were built by Mr. Hovnanian. Over the last five decades, Mr. Hovnanian’s business activities diversified to include the development and construction of health care facilities, major retail centers, office complexes, rental apartments and a 7,200-acre mining business.
In addition to his corporate business achievements, Mr. Hovnanian was involved in numerable charitable and civic activities, including the Boy Scouts of America, Villanova University and numerous New Jersey-based hospitals and universities.
Mr. Hovnanian also contributed greatly to the Armenian community worldwide with a variety of civic, charitable, educational and philanthropic activities. Mr. Hovnanian served as chairman of the Armenian Assembly’s board of trustees for over two decades. Mr. Hovnanian also directly managed the construction of four housing component factories in Armenia after the 1988 earthquake on behalf of the Armenian Assembly of America. In 2014, Mr. Hovnanian completed a $10 million church he built for the people of Armenia in the center of the country’s capital, Yerevan.
During his life, in addition to the contribution of his time to philanthropic causes, Mr. Hovnanian made charitable contributions exceeding $80 million. In 2013, he announced his plan to donate a majority of his net worth, close to $500 million, to his foundation.
His wife Anna predeceased Mr. Hovnanian. They had five children, Siran, Edele, Armen, Tanya, and Leela; two sons-in-law, Toros and Levon; and five grandchildren.
The article originally appeared in the April 22 – 28, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
