WΕIRTON, WV – Archon George Loucas, Supreme President of AHEPA, was honored and celebrated with great affection and respect by his hometown parish of All Saints Greek Orthodox Church in Weirton, West Virginia, and by the AHEPA Hancock Chapter 103 of the Buckeye District.
George Loucas was named after his grandfather, also of Weirton, who served as Supreme President of AHEPA from 1959-1960. They are the only grandfather and grandson to serve as Supreme President.
All of Loucas’ extended family were present along with other dignitaries, including six brother Archons. While Loucas was the honoree, the night really belonged to his mother, who was bursting with pride in the accomplishments of her son.
The evening celebrated Loucas’ extraordinary path to Supreme President of AHEPA as the son of a small steel town, and the community of the All Saints Church and the Weirton community. In an exceedingly emotional speech, Loucas discussed growing up in a traditional community, an immigrant community, an intergenerational community, and a community where Orthodoxy and the Hellenic ideal are central to one’s identity. He spoke about how the values and value system resident in every Greek-American family made him who he is today.
Loucas also spoke about the enormous global impact of AHEPA in the United States and the world as a champion of Hellenism.
Photo AHEPA
Michael Psaros said to Loucas that evening, “My Uncle Nick (All Saints Parish Council President) told me ten years ago, that there is no higher honor than being honored by your own people.” Psaros joined everyone present in proclaiming Mr. Loucas “axios!”
Loucas had told TNH in a previous interview that “I was born on the night my grandfather was elected supreme president. [Recently] my mother was pulling something out of the closet and something fell and hit her on her head, it was this photo album, which was what my grandmother had kept when my grandfather became supreme president. Judge [John] Manos was chairman of the convention that year. The judge was tall and had a booming voice. I went to Cleveland because of him [because] he made a promise to my grandfather to look out for me. I didn’t know the man, and the next thing you know, I’m on my way to Cleveland, and now I live there, he had to approve my wife before I married her, but these are the types of relationships that are made in AHEPA.”
Loucas continued, “I was born and raised in Weirton. It’s a steel town, and it’s like many of the melting pots through the years, filled with ethnic groups and a lot of immigrants coming through to work the steel mills. It was wonderful. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but most important to me was the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, that’s where I went to Greek School, to Cub Scouts, to Boy Scouts, that’s who sent me off to college remembering to be a good Greek-American, and that’s where I always returned, and that’s where I still return, especially when I need to get my bearings straight. My parents are still there, Emmanuel and Mary, my father was an identical twin with his brother, Stamos, called Tom, who was a pharmacist. My dad was a lawyer, and my grandfather was a lawyer, and that’s how I became a pharmacist/lawyer. I have two sisters, they’re both lawyers. My poor mother when she sits down to dinner it’s always lawyers and she knows how to keep us all in line. Penny, my older sister is a federal judge now, in Cleveland, the Hon. Penny E. Loucas, and Cathryn practices law in Oxford, OH. She lives there with her husband David,” said Loucas, brimming with pride and appreciation.
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