site.btaHamid Rusev, One of Elders in Bulgarian Community in US, Dies at 85

Hamid Rusev, one of the elders of the Bulgarian diaspora in the US, has died at the age of 85, Svetoslav Stankov, Consulate General of Bulgaria in Chicago, wrote on Facebook on Thursday. "It is with great sadness that I received the sad news of the death of one of the doyens of Bulgarian emigrants in the US, Mr Hamid Rusev," wrote Stankov. "I will always remember the great love with which Hamid spoke about Bulgaria, despite the difficulties he went through during the totalitarian regime", he added.

Hamid Rusev was born in the village of Arda in Smolyan Region (Southern Bulgaria) in 1939, the e-zine of Bulgarians in the US, Eurochicago.com wrote in an obituary. In 1947, his family was displaced to Northern Bulgaria, where he finished school. Together with Shefket Chapadzhiev, another well-known member of the Bulgarian diaspora in the US, Rusev crossed the Bulgarian-Greek border illegally, after which he was condemned to live a life of a fugitive until his arrival in the United States. After a rough start there, Rusev started a small restaurant and turned it into a successful business which he ran for thirty years. In 2001 he became the publisher of the first professionally written Bulgarian weekly in the US, Bulgaria.

"Hamid helped many Bulgarians who came after 1989, when there were still no Bulgarian experts in many fields of business. Our compatriots will remember him with his eternal smile", writes the newspaper of Bulgarians in the US and Canada, Bulgaria Now.

Hamid Rusev will be paid to rest next to his wife in Chicago. A memorial service will be held in September.