Greek

Published by The National Herald, March 11, 2005

Benefactor Of Greek Schools Dies

NEW YORK – Petros Sarantakos, who donated $1,354,500 to the St. Nicholas School in Flushing and the same amount to the St. Demetrios School in Astoria last October, passed away on Friday, February 25. He was 82.

Mr. Sarantakos died at 4:30 PM at the New York University Hospital, where he had been admitted three weeks earlier after suffering a relapse in his health, which had been keeping him bedridden in his Manhattan apartment for months.

"We had been by his side all this time because we loved and respected him," said Dr. Antigone Vlahogianni, a teacher at St. Nicholas School and a friend of the deceased Greek American’s family.

"Up until the end, he expected to get well, get up on his feet and visit the schools to see the students and the works that were going to be accomplished with his generous contributions. The students gave him so much joy when they visited him at his home to thank him, and to show him their love and gratitude," she told the National Herald.

During his recent hospitalization, Mr. Sarantakos received a visit from the two communities’ parish priests, Rev. Apostolos Koufalakis of St. Demetrios Cathedral and Rev. Paul Palesty of St. Nicholas Cathedral. When the latter visited Mr. Sarantakos, together with the St. Demetrios community’s former president Steven Cherpelis, he took the ailing man’s confession. The day before Mr. Sarantakos’ died, Rev. Palesty had also administered Holy Unction to him.

"He was very pleased by Father Palesty’s visit, whom he respected very much," Dr. Vlahogianni said, adding that Mr. Sarantakos had also expressed the wish to not be kept on life support.

This past Tuesday, March 8, a Trisagion service was held for Mr. Sarantakos at the Antonopoulos Funeral Home in Astoria. The following day, Mr. Sarantakos’ body was transported to Greece, where his funeral was held on Thursday, March 10, at the Kimiseos tis Theotokou Church in his village of Palaiopanagia, near Sparta.

"I was by his side all of these past days," said Tom Cherpelis, who worked at Mr. Sarantakos’ former restaurant on the corner of 18th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan for 10 years. "I was there the day before his death; his eyes were closed, and I whispered to him, ‘it’s me; Tom.’ Then he opened his eyes and looked at me, and it was as if he was saying, ‘This is what remains. It’s over,’ " Mr. Cherpelis said, clearly moved. "He was like a father and a teacher to me. I learned a lot from him. He had so many stories to tell. He was simple, but well-read," he said.

"He was always nice and polite," Mr. Cherpelis added about his former boss and friend. "We never argued. I respected him, and he respected me, like good friends should." Mr. Cherpelis escorted Mr. Sarantakos to his final resting place in Greece.

"He was very happy about the donations he made and was very glad to receive the students who came to thank him for his generosity. He wanted to get better, and to visit them, so much. He kept a vase they sent him as a thank you gift, and it always made him happy to look at it," Mr. Cherpelis said.

"He was a true philanthropist who touched, and will continue to touch, the hearts of so many," Dr. Vlahogianni added. "With his actions, both in Greece and in his adopted home in the United States, where he spent most of his life, he will be giving hope to people who knew him, as well as people who didn’t. His memory will be eternal in the history of the Greek American community for his contributions to the preservation of Hellenic language and the Greek Orthodox tradition."

Before his death, Mr. Sarantakos told the National Herald that he decided to make his donations in order to support the community’s mission to preserve Hellenic culture in America, urging wealthier Greek Americans to consider doing the same.

"I fell ill and realized this might be the end for me, so I decided that I had to do something with this money," he said. "I would suggest to all our fellow wealthy Greek Americans to give their money to our schools. They shouldn’t keep it. What are they going to do with it? We must preserve our language."

Mr. Sarantakos also briefly discussed his early childhood years at his village in Greece, where parents couldn’t afford to educate their children properly.

"A lot of people were landowners, but didn’t have money to dress their children, let alone send them to school. In my village, it was the same; until the war came, that is, and it got worse. I had a dream; to study, but it never came true. Maybe it was my disappointment that I never studied myself that made me give the money to these schools. I only regret I didn’t do it sooner."

Mr. Sarantakos’ village of Palaiopanagia is located 11 kilometers southwest of Sparta. He first came to America at age 29 in 1951, soon after the end of the Greek civil war. He told the Herald that he didn’t have any surviving family members.

"I made my fortune through a lifetime’s hard work. I would sometimes work for 100 hours a week. I got tired at some point and sold my restaurant. My father had been widowed and needed me," he said.

Mr. Sarantakos also praised Dr. Vlahogianni and George Panos, the executor of his will, as well as his close friends, Mr. Cherpelis and Vlassios Georgousis.

Mr. Georgousis had collaborated with St. Demetrios Afternoon School Director Timoleon Kokkinos in order for the donation to the St. Demetrios School to be finalized. Mr. Kokkinos told the Herald that he was the one to first suggest that Mr. Sarantakos consider making the donations while helping him write his will.



Volume 7 Number 11 - Tuesday, March 15th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY