Aso O. Tavitian (1940–2020) was born in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria; however, in 1959 he moved to Beirut (Lebanon) with his family, who were originally from Armenia. There, he studied English with a teacher of Armenian descent who covered his living expenses at Haigazian College. In the early 1960s, he emigrated to the United States, where he studied nuclear engineering at Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. In 1969, he co-founded Syncsort Inc., a company where he served as CEO from 1975 to 2008. He never forgot his teacher’s generosity, an example he followed by promoting and funding the Tavitian Foundation. His philanthropic activities and his interest in art led him to become a voracious collector. Beginning in 2004, he began collecting works by the Old Masters, most of which were bequeathed to The Clark Museum (Massachusetts, United States) following his death in 2020.