Man Kills Himself at Wife’s Grave : Glendale: Businessman leaves note saying he wished to join his partner of 10 years and asking that no one give medical aid.

A prominent Glendale businessman fatally shot himself in the head Monday morning as he stood at his wife’s grave in Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, police said.

Witnesses said Zaven Antanesian, 50, walked to his wife, Knar’s, grave about 9 a.m., shook his head, and backed off, Glendale police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian said. Moments later, Antanesian returned to the grave, again shook his head, pulled out a pistol, opened his mouth and pulled the trigger, Keuroghelian said.

By Antanesian’s side was a note saying he wished to join his wife of 10 years and asking that no one provide medical assistance, Keuroghelian said. He was declared dead on arrival at Glendale Memorial Hospital.

Friends and family said Antanesian, a real estate broker once active in the Kiwanis Club, had been severely distraught since his wife’s death from cancer in December. He had helped nurse her since her cancer was diagnosed in 1989.

“They were really a neat couple,” said Allan Stone, a fellow broker. “I really think you could say each of them was the whole universe to the other.”

A native of Iran, Antanesian studied business in England before immigrating to the U.S. about 25 years ago, family said. When he and Knar married in December, 1984, it was the first marriage for both. The couple, who never had children, were best friends and business associates, family members said.

Antanesian helped his wife found a medical laboratory in Glendale, and was active in the Kiwanis Club’s civic events. But all that came crashing down when Knar Antanesian’s cancer was diagnosed.

The couple sold her business, and withdrew from Kiwanis. When his wife died, Antanesian sold the couple’s house in the affluent Chevy Chase Canyon area of Glendale and went into seclusion, spending time in Northern California and Colorado, friends say.

Antanesian had recently returned to Glendale and seemed ready to start anew--he was preparing to reactivate his real estate broker’s license, spoke of returning to flight school to acquire a private pilot’s license, and began contacting old friends.

“He called me last week and said he was back in town. It was the first time I had spoken to him in such a long time. He said he was looking for a condominium and that he was going to settle down here again,” said Glendale City Councilman Larry Zarian, who was a partner in two real estate ventures with Antanesian. One of those ventures, the Mount View Condominiums in Montrose, is the target of a lawsuit that is pending in Superior Court.

“I talked to him just last night and he sounded OK,” said Caroline Ashasian, 27, Antanesian’s niece. “My brother took him on a fishing trip just a week ago. But he had lost a lot of weight and he couldn’t sleep at all. He was still hurting.”