Mary Stefanakis Zarpas

Born in Binghamton, NY in 1924, Mary left the US with her mother, brother, and sister in 1932 to return the family home in Kefalonia, Greece. Mary returned to America alone by steamship at the age of 11, first to NY and then to Washington, DC to be reunited with her father in Bethesda, Maryland. She later started working in his DuPont Circle restaurant, the Commodore. She then took a position as assistant to Ann Archibald, Assistant Vice President, and first female executive in commercial aviation, at Pan American World Airways’ Washington, DC office.

In 1952, Mary met her future husband, CPA and commercial real estate broker Mike Zarpas at a dance at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. They were married and raised three children – Christopher, Stephen, and Michael. In 1968, Mary and Mike were divorced. Mary secured her associate degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Virginia Community College and joined Government Services Inc, the exclusive food service provider to all Federal executive departments. There, as regional director, Mary managed the cafeterias at Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, and State, supervising over 500 employees.

Neither Mike nor Mary developed romantic relationships with others during this time, and in 1979 Mike and Mary were convinced by long time friends Blackie and Lou Auger to join them on a business trip to London, Zurich, and Athens. Upon returning from the trip, Mike and Mary announced to their astonished children that they planned to remarry and did so on August 10, 1979. Their oldest son Christopher served as best man at a civil ceremony at the Arlington, VA Courthouse.

Mike was then a successful commercial real estate broker. Mary joined the National Portrait Gallery as a docent, a volunteer position she held for over 20 years. She also served as a parish council member and docent at the St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Mary also joined THIS for Diplomats (THIS), which was organized in 1961 at the request of the U.S. Department of State to welcome and assist diplomatic families posted to Washington, DC. Mary hosted over 50 luncheons at her home in McLean with the spouses of newly appointed foreign ambassadors as honored guests to help acclimate them to life in Washington, D.C.

Among Mary’s many and varied interests throughout her life were cooking, traveling, reading, gardening and collecting works of art in every medium. Nothing was more important to her than her friends and family. In 2009 she relocated to Norfolk, Virginia to be closer to her children and grandchildren.

Mary is survived by her children Christopher, Stephen and wife Devon, Michael and wife Marie, her grandchildren, her sister Helen Andreatos, and her many nieces and nephews. Mary was incredibly proud of her eleven grandchildren: Calliope, Michael (Karen), Eva, Stella, Samuel, Alexander, Nicholas, Anna, Zoe, Caroline and Ted. They were of great comfort to Mary in her final weeks.

A Trisagion service will be held on Thursday, June 20th at 10:00 am with the funeral to follow at 11:00 am at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 2815 36th St NW, in Washington, DC. Interment to follow at Colombia Gardens Cemetery, 3411 Arlington Blvd, Arlington VA