Born in Boston, Samerjan spent time as a documentary artist for the U.S. Air Force in the Arctic and elsewhere. He also worked as art director for the Los Angeles Times and taught graphic arts at New York University for 25 years. He designed three U.S. postage stamps commemorating the Arctic, the Erie Canal, and Adlai Stevenson. Samerjan did two other New Deal post office murals–one in Maywood (just south of Vernon), that has since been destroyed, and another in Calexico, in San Diego County.