ClassConn Distinguished Service Award 2020
Ilias Tomazos
Speech given by Nina Barclay at the Annual Meeting:
I apologize that as a retiree, I haven't had the experience of everyone here in conveying information by zoom.
I will share a couple of images by power point as well. I also plan to adapt to 2020 by foregoing our traditional mysterious style of announcement. Instead, it is a great pleasure to announce the distinguished service award and tell you why Ilias Tomazos so deserves our gratitude and admiration.
I met Ilias Tomazos in the year 2000 when ClassConn met at the UConn Hellenic Center Paideia, and like many of us, I soon found that the Paideia Center and Ilias' life were interwoven in service to Hellenism, education, the students and people of Connecticut.
Ilias is a native of the village of Soroni on the island of Rhodes, Greece. In secondary school he studied Ancient Greek and Latin; he studied Engineering in college, and came to University of Hartford for grad school. His life path blends all his skills and education, leading by example. As Glaucus tells Diomedes in book 6 of the Iliad he is grounded in respecting one's culture, bringing honor to one's parents; always striving to excell, AIEN ARISTEUEIN.
In Connecticut, Ilias formed friendships with other UCONN students of Greek background and in 1974 they organized a club, the Hellenic Society Paideia. Ilias has served as the president of Paideia since then. (Ilias married his high school love, Maria and they settled in Bristol CT, raising their children Loukia and Costa there.)
Academic Growth of Paideia
In December 1977 Paideia raised $650 to pay a part time instructor to teach the first Modern Greek language class at UCONN, and in 1984, Paideia began its Study Abroad program with a summer class. Now, Paideia’s programs go year round (fall and spring semesters, winter intersession and summer sessions). More than 500 students a year study with Paideia in Greece at Aristotle University, Macedonia University in Thessaloniki, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the University of the Aegean and the National Center for Marine Research in Rhodes. Paideia offers $150,000 in scholarships per year to its students.
The Physical Presence of Paideia on Dog Lane at UCONN began with building The Three Hierarchs Byzantine style Greek Orthodox Chapel, which opened in 1995. Many different communities have met at the center .
From the start, Paideia has relied on volunteer labor and donations for its construction projects. Its Macedonia Educational Building opened in 1997 with classrooms, offices, meeting rooms, hall, library, and an exhibit hall. In 1998 Paideia and its chapter in Alabama completed a Delphic Tholos replica (at the University of South Alabama) and 1998 also saw the plans for the construction of the outdoor Greek theater and skene at UCONN. During these years ClassConn member and UCONN Classics professor Tom Suits described Ilias: "He is a person who has a way of getting people to do things. He inspires people with his enthusiasm . . . He built the chapel [at Storrs] practically by himself. He had faith that he could do that and got it done."
Paideia began construction of the Spartan Museum and restroom facilities for the theater in 2015. Grants from the State of Connecticut are now helping to complete the museum and theater support space. Ilias works daily on construction for hours almost every day.
Ilias never stops thinking holistically, artistically, and philosophically, while engaged in building to outlast us all. The footings of the theater foundations are more than double the measurements called for in CT construction codes. When building the skene building, he brought mosaic workers from Greece to inset a reproduction of the Pella Lion Hunt mosaic in the floor and placed the maxims from Delphi on the building's facade. At a ClassConn meeting in 2017, many of us lent hands to lift and install that mosaic. When the Spartan Museum building took shape, Ilias planned a metope and triglyph frieze illustrating the role of education in Spartan life.
At Ilias's invitation, ClassConn met at Paideia in 2000 and 2017 and he and his wife Maria hosted ClassConn's Ancient Greek Day yearly from 2002 to 2018.
Ilias invites CT teachers and ClassConn members to audit his Modern Greek classes and to study in Greece, as several of us ClassConn members have.
Ilias, for your vision, for welcoming us all as philhellenes, for supporting CT students with respect and love, for always striving to excel, AIEN ARISTEUEIN, we recognize your distinguished service.