George Demetrios Leiloglou was born November 2, 1934, to Demetrios and Eleni in Kalamata, Greece, the town now famous for its olives. Two younger sisters, Eftihia and Olga soon followed. George grew up swimming in the Mediterranean and eating ripe fruit straight from the trees. But his childhood wasn’t all idyllic. He was still a boy when the Germans invaded Greece during World War Two. He once ran a message for resistance soldiers while bullets whizzed over his head, yet God preserved his life.
God continued to work all things for good in George’s life. As a late teen, his aunt grew very ill. In visiting her, George became acquainted with her doctor who shared the good news of the gospel with him for the first time. And once George came to know the Lord at seventeen, he became passionate about studying the Bible and sharing the gospel, a passion which lasted the rest of his life.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in Greece, in 1967, George went to England to pursue a master degree at London School of Economics. While he didn’t end up completing his degree, something much more important happened. He met his future wife Catherine who was working at London Bible College. Soon after meeting, they got engaged, and in 1969, they married back in Greece.
As newlyweds, George and Catherine began looking into emigration to find better job opportunities. God’s hand guided them by closing one door and opening another. Their brother-in-law had emigrated to South Africa, but when George visited that embassy, they were looking for engineers, not accountants. When, on a whim, he tried the American embassy, his skills were exactly what they were looking for. So, in 1970, George and Catherine packed everything they owned into a shipping barrel and flew to the United States. They wound up in Boston (because of friends?) where George found a job at Lumber Mutual, eventually working his way up to controller.
In 1971, their first son, Demetrios was born, followed just eleven months later by another boy, Angelos. George loved being a father. He was the kind of man who would do anything for his boys. Five years later, their third son, Erastos was born.
Meanwhile, things had changed at George’s workplace, and he began to look for new employment. He had offers from Microsoft in Georgia and USAA in Texas. On the advice of his brother-in-law, hearing that Texas looked more like Greece, George packed his family into their station wagon and moved to San Antonio.
There the Lord guided George and Catherine to Wayside Chapel, their church home from then on. George served as an elder for a time and even taught a New Testament Greek class.
Their fourth boy, Iason, was born in 1982. In 1989, Demetrios began attending Texas A&M, and thus began the many weekend trips to visit him and later the other boys who all attended A&M in his footsteps.
During one of these visits, in which Demetrios, now a first-year med student, also drove over, George suffered a massive heart attack. By God’s grace, his life was preserved not only then but for another 26 years through a second heart attack and a fall which caused a life-threatening brain bleed.
George lived to see each of his boys graduate and later get married. He always wanted the best for his boys, so he approached each new fiancé with some skepticism, but ultimately welcomed each of them as a beloved daughter. God blessed him with ten granddaughters and one grandson, who shares his first name. If George loved being a father, he doubly loved being a Pappou, the Greek name for grandfather. He would say, “My children’s children, twice my children.” And he faithfully prayed for each of his sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren by name every day of his life.
On May 11, 2022, George went home to his beloved Savior. He never liked the word goodbye, so we’ll say see you soon to a much missed husband, brother, father, and grandfather.
George is survived by his wife, Catherine; his children, Demetrios (Carolyn), Angelos (Lana), Erastos (Des), and Iason (Julie); his grandchildren, Caelyn, Campbell, Everly, Arden, Ella, Eva, Ana Lina, Olivia, Eleni, Avi, and Athena; and his sisters, Eftyhia Samaropoulos, and Olga Kavakas; and numerous nieces and nephews.
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