Emanuel Demos, father of Suffolk GOP candidate, dies at 75
Emanuel G. Demos, a Manhattan tax lawyer active in the Greek Orthodox Church and father of recent Republican congressional candidate George Demos, has died. He was 75.
Emanuel George Demos, a Manhattan tax lawyer active in the Greek Orthodox Church and father of recent Republican congressional candidate George Demos, has died. He was 75.
Demos died Friday after suffering a heart attack at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, where he went after feeling ill at the family's Shelter Island summer home, where they were celebrating the holiday, said his son, George, of Stony Brook.
"He personified the American dream," George Demos said. "Through hard work, and, more importantly, education, he showed you could go from a small town in Connecticut to the heights of the academic, legal and business world."
George Demos also said he learned his conservative views from his father, who encouraged his bids for a public career. "He was my biggest fan," said Demos, who last month lost a GOP primary in the 1st Congressional District
"And even though we were disappointed by the recent election, he told me there are many ways to serve" to advance conservative causes.Born in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1938, Emanuel Demos was the only son of George and Angeliki Demos.
Demos attended local public schools and in 1960 graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, where he majored in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a law degree from Yale Law School and later served for a year as a law clerk for the Connecticut Supreme Court, the state's highest court. He then joined the faculty of Harvard Law School as an instructor on tax issues.
After two years at Harvard, Demos moved to New York, where he worked for the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. He later joined the tax practices of White & Case, another major New York City law firm, where he worked for 18 years. Later Demos became an executive at two oil companies and a partner in several petroleum ventures. At the time of his death, he was semiretired.
He was former president of the Archdiocesian Cathedral in New York, and Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the highest lay honor the church bestows.
at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 319 E. 74th St. in Manhattan, from 6 to 9 p.m. with a Trisagion service at 7:30 p.m. A funeral service -- to be presided over by Archbishop Demetrios of America -- will be Friday at the same church at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Holy Trinity Cathedral.
