Parviz Shargh

February 3, 1930 – August 8, 2024

Dr. Parviz Shargh was born in Tehran in 1930 at a time when the nation was perched on the precipice of modernity and young people were poised to lead that change. Parviz went to France to study at the Sorbonne Paris and in 1956 received a PhD in economics—in addition to a law degree, which he had already received earlier from the University of Tehran.

He returned, armed with a doctorate degree in economics and ready to take part in leading a cultural revolution that would push Iran into the modern world with one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East, led by a uniquely secular government headed by a Shah who saw himself and the dynasty, which bore his name, as stewards of a great leap for the betterment of a nation rich with resources, geographic significance and great human capital.

Dr. Shargh led pivotal industrial ventures which were the building blocks of the growing Iranian economy of the 1970s. He was instrumental in Iran’s advancement in the production of cement to fuel its unprecedented growth while serving as director of the nation’s largest industrial lending bank (Etebarat Sanaati).

His instinct gave rise to factories and industrial advances in a free-market economy that was increasingly appealing to global companies. Joint ventures and new investments poured into Iran, led by local entrepreneurship as well as multi-national investment.

Dr. Shargh enabled local industry to flourish and supported a growing stock market by helping strengthen markets and systems that would form the backbone of a strong economy for generations to come.

As his last act of industrial development before the 1979 revolution, which would oust his family and see them move first to France then to the U.S., he formed a joint venture together with the French government called Air Liquide.

In 1978, Dr. Shargh moved with his family of four to Paris where they lived for one year and then Livingston, New Jersey, where they had family ties and resided for more than a decade.

The family later moved to Los Angeles, with Dr. Shargh and his loving wife of more than 60 years eventually settling in Santa Monica, where he is now resting in peace at Woodlawn Cemetery and Mausoleum.

Parviz was a beloved son, a revered elder brother, a cherished husband and father, a treasured father-in-law, and finally a much-adored grandfather to three. His spirit of kindness was infectious.

His worldview was one that exuded the grace of a worldly man upon whom good fortune had bestowed many opportunities and a front-row seat to history as it unfolded. Parviz has memories of the Tehran Conference in 1943 during World War II when Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in Tehran to discuss the opening of the “Second Front” in Western Europe.

His father was a prominent landowner with tea and tobacco plantations, which still exist today—though no longer in family hands.

Parviz regaled his Iranian-American grandchildren with tales of old days and historic events until the very end, when poetry and family time took over his days.

He died in peace surrounded by his family in his own home at the age of 94. Parviz is survived by his wife Sohi Zargham, his son Cyrus Faramarz, his daughter Maryam, their spouses and his three grandchildren.