Andre E. Parhamovich
Perry, OH
Photo - 1969
Information - 2007
High School Activities - Baseball, Football, JV Wrestling, Student Council, Hall Guard, Voted #1 "Most Enthusiastic"
Wife - Vickie L. Parhamovich
Daughters - Andrea and Marci The following information appeared in a couple of newspapers.
New York Times January 18, 2007:
CLEVELAND, Jan. 18 - Andrea Parhamovich always stood out.
Before she was killed Wednesday in an ambush in Baghdad, Ms. Parhamovich, a 28-year-old political consultant from Perry, 40 miles east of here, was known to her friends and family as hard charging but lovable, possessed with Joan of Arc's determination and the charm of a pixie, who had dreams of working on a presidential campaign and possibly running for Congress.
Ms. Parhamovach, whom everyone called Andi, mocked death. In November 206, two car bombs were discovered in front of the building where she lived in the Green Zone in Baghdad. The base was locked down, said Michael Hastings, her boyfriend, who is the Baghdad correspondent for Newsweek magazine. In the Green Zone convention center for hours, Ms. Parhamovich grew bored, Mr. Hastings said. She led 10 American and Peruvian men as they walked back to her building, mortars exploding nearby.
Mr. Hastings said he was planning to ask Ms. Parhamovich to marry him next month during a Valentine's Day trip to Paris. "She was this little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl from Ohio, but she was tough," he said. "She was far more brave than I am."
Ms. Parhamovich was teaching Iraqi politicians how to communicate with constituents. She was a staff member of the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit group led by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright that works to build democratic institutions. She was in an institute convoy outside the Green Zone when it was attacked. On Thursday, a coalition of Sunni insurgents lined to Al Qaeda claime responsibility for the attack, which killed a total of four people, The Associated Press reported.
She had left a job with the liberal Air America radio network, helping to organize its antiwar "Bring 'Em Home" concert in New York City in March 2006.
"Whenever I went into her office, I just felt a happiness, a glow," said Al Franken, the liberal radio show host, who choked up several times as he discussed Ms. Parhamovich. "She was a hard person not to like."
Ms. Parhamovich's father coached baseball at a high school near Perry, the small town where she grew up, and she had dreams of becoming a top fast-pitch softball player before back injuries forced her to quit the sport, said Joe Zampini, her brother-in-law.
She talked just as she played: fast. "She wasn't into small talk," Mr. Zampini said. "She wanted to get the most out of life. She was very highly motivated to help the world."
Ms. Parhamovich attended marietta, a small liberal arts college in southeast Ohio, where she studied advertising and public relations. Politically liberal, she was conservative on personal matters, said Ryan Zundell, who worked with her in the college's public relations department. She rarely drank and eschewed low-cut shirts and jeans.
She graduated in three and a half years then worked for Jane Swift, who was the Republican governor of Massachusetts. Ms. Parhamovich opposed the war from the start, Mr. Hastings said.
"There's so much injustice in this country, so may horrible things happening," he said from Baghdad. "She felt like she could make a difference."
Plain Dealer January 19, 2007:
Perry - Lake County native Andrea "Andi" Parhamovich died doing what she loved most - helping other people.
Parhamovich, 28, who worked for the Washington-based National Democratic Institute on International Affairs, was killed in an ambush in Baghdad, Iraq, on Wednesday along with three contractors from Hungary, Croatia and Iraq, according to the Associated Press. Two others were injured.
"Andi's desire to help strangers in such a dangerous environment thousands of miles away might be difficult for others to understand, but to us, it epitomized Andi's natural curiosity and unwavering commitment," according to a statement released by the family late Thursday.
She joined the nonprofit institute's baghdad staff late last year, to "help Iraqi political party leaders and parliamentarians develop strategies to reach out to voters and constituents," the organization reported in a statement.
Her relatives gathered Thursday at the Middle Ridge Road house where she gew up.
News of the death of Parhamovich - described by colleagues as passionate about helping Iraqi citizens - spread slowly through the snowy, windswept flatlands of Perry, which lies in the shadows of a nuclear power plant.
By early Thursday, word had reached St. Cyprian Church, where Parhamovich was a member, and Perry High School, where she excelled academicaly and was a tenacious softball player.
"Andrea was the type of person who wanted to make a difference in people's lives, and I think that is what led her to Iraq," said Pat Giannell, a Perry High School history teacher, who taught Parhamovich when she was a freshman.
She had a strong work ethic and the intelligence and warmth to communicate with almost anyone, Gianell said. "She had a strong will and the determination to succeed. She was a leader who led by example."
Others also spoke of their shock and sadness.
Plain Dealer January 19, 2007:
Few parents truly know what Andrea Parhamovich's mother and father are going through: the loss of a child working as a civilian in Iraq.
Parhamovich, 28, a native of Perry in northeast Ohio, died Wednesday in an ambush on a convoy of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute. Her family has been too upset to say much, other than their daughter was unafraid and committed to doing good.
"It's been pretty hard. It's been pretty hard. It's been devastating. Her mom and dad have taken it pretty hard," brother-in-law Joe Zampini said Friday at the news conference where he appealed for the family's privacy.
He said Parhamovich, known as "Andi" to her friends and loved ones, didn't talk much about her experiences in Iraq.
"We knew it wasn't a safe place. But she was really strong and I think she wanted to shield us from that," said Zampini, married to Parhamovich's sister, Marci.
Al Franken, who worked with Parhamovich at the liberal radio company Air America for about 18 months, said he's devastated by her death.
"She was a thoroughly charming, intelligent, funny, idealistic, dedicated young woman," he said. "It was just great being in her presence because you felt like you were in the presence of a really good person, a real American. She was loved in every way, just beautiful."
Parhamovich, a graduate of Marietta College in southeast Ohio, had been working with NDI in Baghdad since late 2006. She helped Iraqi political parties reach out to voters.
Also killed in Wednesday's attach were three security contractors from Hungary, Croatia and Iraq. An al-Qaida-linked coalition of Iraqi Sunni insurgents has claimed responsibility.
Michael Hastings, whom Parhamovich had planned to marry, told The Associated Press on Fraidy that his girlfriend was fearless and dedicated, despite working in a country whose war whe did not support.
"She didn't agree with the war, but she felt that now that we're here, she wanted to do what she could to help the Iraqis," Hastings said in a telephone interview in Baghdad, where he works as a reporter for Newsweek. "She wasn't afraid of taking risks."
Franken said Parhamovich was not the kind of person to criticize without doing something to help fix it.
"She was against the war but nevertheless saw that what Iraq needs is the growth of democratic institutions," he said.
Matthew Hiltzik, president of Freud Communications Inc. in New York, was Parhamovich's boss when she worked for film company Miramax about four years ago. The two remained cloe friends and later, she was supposed to help him start his company, but then he recommended she go to Air America.
In Iraq, she wanted to work on spreading democracy there for about a year, then use that experience to perhaps work with a presidential candidate on foreign affairs, Hiltzik said.
A run for Congress also was in her dreams, he said.
Parhamovich, a liberal who had worked for a Republican Massachusetts governor, was an avid Cleveland Indians and Browns fan who had a fondness for the underdog. "She always felt for Marty Schottenheimer," Hiltzik said.
She named the fantasy football team the two had after the San Diego Chargers coach who is the most successful one never to have reached the Super Bowl.
Plain Dealer January 20, 2007:
Perry - the fiance of Andrea "Andi" Parhamovich, who was killed in Baghdad, will accompany her body back to Lake County for services, her family said Friday.
Newsweek reporter William Hastings and Parhamovich had planned to marry, possibly later this winter in Paris, said Joe Zampini, to woman's brother-in-law, at a news conference. Hastings has left his Newsweek assignment embedded with troops in Iraq.
No date has been set for a funeral, Zampini said, but arrangements will be handled by the Johnson Funeral Home in Painesville. The family expects the body to arrive in the United States next week.
Parhamovich, 28, a former Perry High School student, was in Iraq advising public officials and political parties through the National Democratic Institute when her convoy was attacked Wednesday.
Details of the attack, described by many as an ambush on the roadway, trickled in from various news sources Friday. But the family avoided taling about the incident, preferring instead to focus on Parhamovich's life and goals.
Zampini, who is married to Parhamovich's sister, met with reporters briefly Friday afternoon. He read from a statement the family had issued late Thursday night, stressing that Parhamovich was committeed to trying to help the Iraqi people, in spite of the danger.
He said that the news was devastating to the family, which had been concerned for her safety.
"She really never got into details with us," Zampini said of the danger there. "We knew she was going to be there and we knew it wasn't a safe place."
He also recounted that she had met her fiance while she worked for the Air America radio network. Hastings was meeting broadcaster Jerry Springer regarding a show on Air America.
She went to Iraq six months ago to work for the Washington-based institute.
According to reports by the Associated Press and New York Times, Parhamovich had met with a Sunni political party on Wednesday and was headed back to her own group's headquarters in a three-car convoy when it was attacked about 4 p.m.
As many as 30 gunmen in the Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk fired at her armored sedan with heavy weapons and grenades. Though security guards trid to call for help, the car was destroyed. Three guards from Hungary, Croatia and Iraq were killed with Parhamovich.
Zampini offered condolences to their families as well.
Les Campbell, the National Democratic Institute's director for Africa and the Middle East, was hesitant to verify details. The group's Baghdad office is outside the protected "Green Zone" and he did not want to put others at risk. He also was not sure if Parhamovich and the rest of the insitute's group were deliberately targeted for their work.
"That's a question we badly want answered," Campbell said.
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