Dr. Nicholas D. Matsakis was born to Karpathian immigrant parents in Pittsburgh, PA in 1914. When he was seven, his family returned to Karpathos. In Othos, he helped take care of the family’s gardens, fields, goats and sheep. In 1929, he went to Cyprus to attend the seminary that his uncle George Matsakis was running in Larnaca. In 1933, after graduating from the seminary, he came to the USA. He supported himself by working almost around the clock - teaching Greek school and working in restaurants in Steubenville, Ohio, Lowell, Massachusetts, and in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1936, he started dental school at Washington University in St. Louis. He was still struggling to learn English and in his first year was near the bottom in his class. By the time he graduated, he was ranked fourth highest in his class. When he first opened his dental office, he had to work fourteen hours a day to make ends meet. During WW II he achieved the rank of Major in the US Army and was active in the Greek War Relief effort.
In 1945, he married Theodora Sakellarides Papageorge, whose parents came from the villages of Volada and Aperi. Nicholas purposely chose a Karpathian woman in order to preserve the Karpathian traditions and values. Although his dental practice began to grow and prosper, he still found time to become active in Greek causes. In 1955, he formed the St. Louis Justice for Cyprus Committee, which began an information campaign and organized educational events, including a 1957 visit by the late Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus.
Dr. Matsakis also initiated a comprehensive letter-writing campaign to local and Greek newspapers and the US government officials, which continues to this date and which has resulted in meetings with US legislators, State Department officials, including Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, President Jimmy Carter, and anyone else who he thought could help assist and free Cyprus. In 1964, the Justice for Cyprus Committee raised over $20,000 for the victims of the Turkish bombings on Cyprus and in 1974, the Committee immediately raised $60,000 for relief and has since adopted over 318 orphans and needy children and donated money for their care.
He was appointed Honorary Counsel for the Republic of Cyprus in 1970; was cofounder and is still active in the American Hellenic Institute in Washington, DC, and helped found the permanent Cyprus Committee of AHEPA. In the last few years, he led a successful effort to establish a Chair of Greek Studies at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. In recognition of these efforts, the University of Missouri has established the “Nicholas and Theodora Matsakis Hellenic Cultural Center for International Studies”. Nicholas was honored by KEPPA in 1975, AHEPA in 1997, and the Cyprus Federation of America in 2003. In 2007, the government of Greece recognized his efforts by awarding him the Order of the Phoenix Gold Cross
He has three children, 7 grandchildren, and 5 great grand-children, who live in the United States and share a vacation home in Pegadia. His daughter Aphrodite is a psychologist who has published over 12 books, some of which have been translated into Greek and German. His son Demetrios (click here to read more) is an astronomer who now manages the atomic clocks at the U.S. Naval Observatory. His son Elias is a senior partner at the prestigious law firm of Holland and Knight.
Now retired from dentistry and in his nineties, Nicholas continues to be an activist for Cyprus in the tradition of his great grandfather who fought against the Turks in 1821. His Cyprus newsletter is mailed four times a year to 400 supporters. Aside from his family, Karpathos, Cyprus, and the preservation of the Greek heritage, his other passion is his vegetable garden. “I can’t tell you the joy it gives me to plant things and watch them grow,” he says and adds: “If I die tomorrow, I will die happy. I have a wonderful wife and three children – and now grandchildren and great grandchildren too, who are educated and who love me.”
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