Athanasios + Aristoula gatsoulis in Memoriam

Athanasios Gatsoulis, 94, (affectionately as Papoo and Thanasi) formerly of the Hyde Park section of Boston and resident of the Roxbury section of Boston, passed on March 29, 2016.  Beloved husband of Aristoula (affectionately Areti and Yaya) for 60 yrs. Father of Irene and Peter Gatsoulis and his wife Kjerste Soderberg of Roxbury. Their children and  papoo of  Athan and Ava Athena. Brother of Dimitros and Antigone of Greece.  Raised in Macedonia, foreign allied resistance and partisan veteran of WWII. Remembered as an activist and proponent of fairness of labor worker rights in Thessaloniki.  Remembered for his enduring work as a stone mason  locally and on the Cape and south of Boston. Loved by family, friends and neighbors, and friend to many others he encountered through out his life. Funeral arrangements by Kfoury Keefe Funeral Home and interred at Fairview Cemetery, Hyde Park, Boston, MA, US on April 1st of 2016.

Dad's character

Dad was a gentle and kind man. A couple of snippet tidbits I shared at his burial, dad served for 9 yrs (1940-1948)  as allied resistance to his country's occupation and as a partisan veteran of the 2nd Great war. Right after the war he went to work for a close relative's Plywood plant where he promptly got fired after discovering the workers were being exploited and organizing them. They elected him shop steward and he ended up "quitting" via familial pressure. Dad was active in the 1950's in Thessaloniki as a proponent, supporter and volunteer for worker's rights.  Dad worked full time in the 1950's yet was flat broke most of the time, bcs the money he earned was used for buying food for the many prisoners, all ex-soldiers on the losing side of the greek civil war that ended up in the jails and were punitively being starved. Dad was loved and made friends fast due to his kind and gentle nature and his sense of standing up for wrongs, even though it cost him personally.

Favorite Food: Spanakopita Mousaka Squid and octupus

Favorite Musical Group: Greek folk music

Greatest Achievement: Saved 4 British paratroopers during WWII by guiding them thru the northern mountains of Macedonia to Albanian border, encountered heavy activity and turned right back south, many days to Mount Athos or the Holy Aggion Oros Monastery to seek sanctuary, but before entering they all got captured but at least they survived.

Favorite Vacation: On Cape and in Greek Macedonia

Athanasios 1921 - 2016