The Hellenic Cultural Society of San Diego, California

“Except for the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves on this earth that is not Greek in its origin.” Spoken by British scholar and Philhellene, Sir Henry Sumner Maine, it was scholarly revelations such as his that inspired us to create the Hellenic Cultural Society.

One fateful Sunday afternoon in September, 1965, a few Greek American parishioners had gathered for coffee after having attended liturgical services at St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in San Diego. They began discussing how best to preserve their family’s cultural heritage for the benefit of yet-to-be-born generations. These visionaries, Steve and Alice Aposperis, Irene and Earl J. Cantos, George D. Koulaxes, Mary and George S. Marinos, Katherine Nicholas and Sophie and George Stephens envisioned creating a dynamic organization to preserve and promote Hellenic culture for the benefit of all future generations.

They decided to name their new organization, “The Hellenic Cultural Society of San Diego, California.” The new organization had no funds, so they decided to raise funds through an annual charity “Hellenic Ball” in order to support their new organization. The first “Hellenic Ball” was co-chaired by Steve Aposperis and George D. Koulaxes in 1966. The inital plan was to raise enough money to build a Hellenic Cultural Center for present and future generations to participate in Hellenic cultural activities and to include a centrally housed collection of invaluable books and other assets, to assure there would always be a place to preserve and study their ancestor’s accomplishments. They wanted their children to understand the richness of thousands of years of Greek culture and history - to know and see the wonders of the great Greek minds - to read through the awesome songs of Homer - experience the greatness of Pericles’ “Golden Age” and all the Greek contributors down through the centuries to the modern literary masterpieces of George Seferis and Nikos Kazantzakis.

Thus was born the Hellenic Cultural Society which today has many loyal friends and supporters who never lose their zest for Hellenism. The first among them was our initial President George S. Marinos -- under whose leadership we incorporated as a not-for-profit California corporation and built a library of scholarly works on Hellenic subjects, in both Greek and English. We also presented lectures on the full spectrum of Greek topics; a practice that was so successful, we continue to provide scholarly lectures and programs to this day - free and open to the public - so anyone can learn about the importance of Hellenic culture in the development of Western Civilization.

In 2005, our Hellenic Cultural Society agreed to lead a Herculean effort to raise the funds needed to endow three Greek History Chairs (Ancient, Byzantine and Modern Greek history) at the University of California, San Diego, in perpetuity. Our organization directly contributed over $100,000 to that effort, and worked diligently to raise the rest. By 2007, we were completely successful and the Greek History Chairs at UCSD are now a reality.

Next, we focus on raising funds for fellowship and scholarship grants. We do so in order to provide graduate scholars and outstanding undergraduate students some financial aid in their study of Hellenic history at UCSD -- under the tutelage of the new Greek History Chairs. We have established the Hellenic Cultural Society - Educational Endowment Fund (HCS-EEF) for this purpose and we seek your approval and support.

Finally, one of our earliest goals was to establish a scholarly library on Greece and Hellenic culture and learning. We did so to assure that future students could find a ready source of information and knowledge about our ancestors. That goal has now been fulfilled, as we have agreed to donate our entire library, composed of up to 2500 volumes, to The Audrey Geisel University Library at UCSD, in support of: The Jeannie and Gerry Ranglas Endowed Chair in Ancient Greek History; The Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair in Byzantine History; The Penelope and George Nicholas Family Endowed Chair in Modern Greek History.