Early Years
Deukmejian was born Courken George Deukmejian, Jr. in Menands, New York to Armenian American parents. His parents were Armenians who immigrated from the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. His father, a rug merchant, was born in Gaziantep and his mother was born in Erzurum and worked for Montgomery Ward and later for New York State. Deukmejian graduated a B.A. in Sociology from Siena College in 1949. He then earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from St. John's University in 1952. From 1953 to 1955, he served in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Judge Advocate General's Corps.
Deukmejian moved to California in 1955 where his sister, Anna Ashjian, introduced him to his future wife Gloria Saatjian, whose parents were also immigrants from Armenia. They married in 1957 and have three children: two daughters, born in 1964 and 1969 and one son, born in 1966.
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