Hellenic
2002 Recipient
Vasilia (Bess) Pappas was born on June 21, 1938, in Malden, Massachusetts, the daughter of George and Catherine Poulos Ferentinos. Her father immigrated to the United States from the island of Chios, Greece, in early 1920 to pursue the “American Dream” and hoping to bring his young wife and daughters, Maria and Kyriaki (Kay), to America. Within a year of his family’s arrival, Vasilia was born, followed by a brother, Nicholas, making them first generation Americans.
As a student, Vasilia was a high achiever and excelled in her academic studies as she earned and received various awards for scholarship, citizenship, service and the arts. The marriages of her sisters and early death of her father made her the sole provider of her mother and younger brother. As the breadwinner, she worked as a paralegal in a Boston law firm.
In March of 1959, she married Chris I. Papas, an attorney, whose parents also emigrated from Chaos, Greece. They reside in Melrose, Massachusetts, and have two children. A son, Lee George, is married to Lisa, and is president of Progressive Finance Corporation in Saugus, MA. Their daughter, Lcatherine Ann Pappas, is a partner with her father in the Boston law firm of Pappas, & Pappas.
A communicant of the Annunciation Cathedral of New England, she taught Sunday School for 23 years and as President of the Cathedral Sunday School directed the education mission of a staff of 49 teachers, serving a student body of 650 boys and girls. Other facets of her leadership include her trusteeship in the Hellenic Women’s Benevolent Association of the Hellenic Home for the Aged, and her many years on the Executive Board of the Cathedral of New England Ladies Philoptochos Society. Vasilia Pappas was an organizing member of the Restoration Committee of the Annunciation Cathedral and spearheaded many fundraising activities for the restoration of the Cathedral, which now has a historical landmark designation.
More than twenty-eight years ago, after a life-defining experience involving rare open heart surgery for their son Lee, Vasilia Pappas dedicated herself to providing a lifeline for other cardiac patients and their families, especially for those needy families in the land of her ancestors and of Greek heritage in this country. After a few years of personally sponsoring sick children for surgery and housing them and their parents in the Pappas home, the increased appeals to help save critically ill infants and children pointed to the need for a more permanent mission. In 1978, in thanksgiving for the successful cardiac surgery of their own son’s life threatening heart problem, Vasilia, and her husband, Chris, established the Hellenic Cardiac Fund for Children at Children’s Hospital Boston. Vasilia Pappas has tirelessly nurtured and cultivated this unique fund into an international program.
A partial list of Vasilia (Bess) Pappas’ achievement awards are as follows:
Humanitarian Award presented by His Holiness the late Patriarch of Jerusalem Diodoros; “The Beneficence Decoration” from the Republic of Greece presented in behalf of the President of Greece; the 2002 “Arete” award for Philanthropy by the Greek Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Award for Best Hellenic Volunteer Organization presented by the Minister of Health in Athens, Greece, to commemorate the “International Year of the Volunteer 2001”; The 1995 Children’s Hospital Chairman’s Award (the highest award Children’s bestows); the 1995 “St. Louis Hellenic Spirit Foundation Achievement Award”; the 1994 “humanitarian Award” by the Academy of Athens; “1992 Woman of Vision” by the Massachusetts Society to Prevent Blindness; “Diocese Laity Award” by His Eminence Methodios for services to the Annunciation Cathedral of New England; the “Humanitarian Award” by the Mayor of the City of Boston, Thomas Menino; the Pan-Cretan Award for Philanthropy; the National Chios Society Award for service to needy children of Greece; the “Good Neighbor Award” by the National Conference of Christians and Jews; “The Good Citizen Award” by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
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