Roy Maloumian, third generation owner of Maloumian Oriental Rugs, civic leader, and world traveler, has died at 80

Roy Maloumian, 80, formerly of Philadelphia, longtime owner of Maloumian Oriental Rugs, civic leader, and world traveler, died Friday, May 19, of cancer at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del.

The third generation of his family to sell Oriental rugs in Philadelphia, Mr. Maloumian and his older brother, Richard, helped their father, Menas, turn the local company into an international retail and wholesale giant that once featured dozens of outlets in half a dozen states and formed groundbreaking production agreements in the 1980s with rug manufacturers in China.

He oversaw operations at retail stores in Mount Airy, Chestnut Hill, Center City, Haverford, and elsewhere in the region, and told The Inquirer in 1981 that the company was the largest importer, retailer, and servicer of Oriental rugs in the United States. “We haven’t found anyone larger yet,” he said.

Mr. Maloumian did much of the international purchasing for the company and haggled over prices with executives on frequent visits to China, Iran, India, and Pakistan. A longtime member of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, he was part of the city’s first trade delegation to China in 1982 and later forged a seminal Oriental rug distribution joint venture with officials in the city of Tianjin.

“This will open the door for the flow of cultural and technical exchanges,” he told The Inquirer in 1984.

Mr. Maloumian’s grandfather, an ethnic Armenian born in Turkey, founded the firm in Philadelphia in 1927, and his father assumed control in 1942. After working a few years with an insurance company in New York after college, Mr. Maloumian joined the family business in the 1960s and took full control in the 1990s. He told The Inquirer in 1985: “We’re Armenians, and Armenians have traditionally been the Oriental rug people in the United States.”

Asked why that was, he said, with a hearty laugh, “Good profit.”

Gregarious and likable, Mr. Maloumian was a staple on the showroom floor and appeared in many of the company’s TV commercials. He was quoted often in The Inquirer, Philadelphia Business Journal, Chestnut Hill Local, and other publications, and the business was so successful it had its own advertising department.

He provided antique rugs for the office of Mayor Bill Green and other local notables, and contracted with the U.S. State Department to supply rugs for American embassies in China, South America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa. His longtime presence in Chestnut Hill even impacted his competitors positively.

“They advertise heavily and bring many people to the area,” a fellow rug retailer told the Daily News in 1987. “He’s been very good for us.”

The company also sold Oriental rugs for cars and ran an ad in 1983 that said: “After all, you wouldn’t put a remnant in your living room. … So why put one in your car?”

In 2001, Mr. Maloumian was named retailer of the year by the New Jersey-based Oriental Rug Importers Association. The company temporarily closed its Mount Airy showroom in 2017 but reopened and continues to sell and clean rugs.

“It is so special to clean a rug my grandfather sold to a customer’s family decades ago,” Mr. Maloumian told PRweb.com in 2017. His son, Hadji, said: “His work was his passion.”

Royden Menas Maloumian was born March 31, 1943, in Philadelphia. He graduated from Germantown High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from La Salle University and a master’s degree in business administration from Temple University.

He married Carey Thomas, and they had sons Hadji and Hunter, and lived in Chestnut Hill. He and his wife moved to Chesapeake City, Md., about five years ago.

He was active with arts and cultural organizations in Philadelphia and Chesapeake City, and established annual scholarships at Philadelphia-area colleges so visiting Chinese rug weavers could study marketing and business.

He was a longtime member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America and drove his own restored cars in organized races. He captained a motor boat near his home in Maryland, traveled to Europe with his wife often, and especially enjoyed visiting Ireland and Cuba.

“He was an optimistic, peaceful person who never saw a bad thing in anyone,” his wife said. His son Hadji said: “He was a gentle, warm, and kind man. He was the best.”

In addition to his wife, sons, and brother, Mr. Maloumian is survived by one granddaughter and other relatives.

» READ MORE: Roy Maloumian sizes up the modern Oriental rug business

A celebration of his life is to be later.

Donations in his name may be made to the Armenian Sisters Academy, 440 Upper Gulph Rd., Radnor, Pa. 19087.