STATHOPOULOS, Nickolas

January 1, 1927 — March 5, 2022

We are each on a journey and sadly, there is a time it ends for us all. My father’s ended in Kelowna March 5th, 2022 – 95 years and 10,000 kilometres after it began in a small town in Greece called Messini.

His journey was not always an easy one. He was 12 when German forces occupied Greece. He enlisted in the Navy at 17 and served on the submarines during a civil war that separated an already war-torn country. In 1951 his mother passed. Soon after, in search of peace and a better life, he boarded a ship in Piraeus with his younger sister Tassia that was bound for Canada.

He found his home and his family in the town of Powell River. Working for the city, he was able to put down the roots that were so important to him. He drove the big trucks, plowed the roads after snowfalls, and ran the boiler for the road maintenance crews in the summer. He was a man of all trades.

My father was never one to complain and took responsibilities to heart. He put his family above all. He wasn’t political, but believed in common sense. He loved his two countries equally. He had an insatiable curious streak and a desire to understand how all things mechanical worked.

He was an inventor, a philosopher, a storyteller, and a historian; a man with a soft spot for the underdog, and a guy who laughed easily and chose his friends carefully. He was honest, hardworking, loyal to the core and tough as nails.

He appreciated many things and had grand plans right to the very end, but in his heart, his passion was always his family. To my dad it was everything. He adored our Mom and worried for nothing other than her wellbeing and her happiness.

We are fiercely proud of him and fortunate to have had him in our lives and to have been by his side as he left our world and began his journey in the next.

Nick was predeceased by his mother Stavroula, his father Michael, and his sisters Sophia and Tassia. He will live forever in our hearts: his wife of 63 years, Carol; his daughter Melina (Tom); his son Jeff (Tanya); and his grandchildren Alicia (Joel), Natasha (Kiran), Kaylie (Kyle), Mikayla (Gage), and Brayden (Lucille).

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