Εugenios Eugenidis (1882 - 1954)

An astute businessman of international standing, a nobleman with a huge heart, that is who Eugenios Eugenides was. Born in Didymoteicho, on 22 December 1882, the son of Agapios Eugenides, a senior judge in the Ottoman Empire, and of Charikleia Afentaki, he left his native land early to begin his life, the brilliant and rare life of a great man.

His father, discerning even then that the English language was a means for a cosmopolitan career, urged him to study at Robert College, the school a great many of Constantinople Greeks attended. Eugenios graduated at the age of twenty.

By that time the young and dreamy Eugenios had already envisioned the possibility of Greece building large shipyards, on a par with the best in the world. Many of his colleagues would say of him in later years that "he possessed business foresight to the point of clairvoyance".

Indeed, he soon secured for himself an important position with the large British house Doro's Brothers' and in 1904, aged 24, he became the general manager of the large agency 'Reppen' and only a little later he became a partner. And the same time, he was involved in the lumber trade. In 1923, after the destruction of Asia Minor, he came to Greece and he took on the general agency of the ships of Svenska Orient Linien. A little later he established the 'Scandinavian Near East Agency'.

Not long after WW II had broken out, he went to Egypt and then to North Africa where he set up a line providing regular connections with South America by steamship. Finally, he went to Argentina and it is in the course of his stay there that he planned his post-war activities. Once more, his foresight told him that a strong flow of immigration was likely, and he turnd to ocean liners. He established 'Home Line', which, based in Genoa, managed four ocean liners that carried immigrants from Europe to North Africa, Australia, the United States and Canada.

Two years after the end of the war, in 1947, Eugenios Eugenides settled down in Vevey, Switzerland, and from there he ran his operations, which by now extended across the world. In 1953, his interest turned to Greece and he set up an ocean liner connection with North America and a regular freight line to South America while he continue

d with the development of the innovative activities of "Scandinavian Agency".

He was the first ship-owner to set an example with the repatriation of a ship to Greece, as the higher bidder for

the newly built vessel Athinai that Greece had got as war reparations. The ship, under the Greek flag, sailed the Greece-South America line. Immedi

ately afterwards, wishing to assert his business presence in Greece, he claimed the Greece-North America transatlantic line. He put on the ocean liner Atlantic, which was later renamed Queen Friederike. In 1954, Spyros Melas wrote in "Estia": "He (Eugenios Eugenides) confessed to me once, when I first met him as the General Consul for Finland in his Glyfada villa, that as far back as when seated in the classrooms of Robert College, where he had been an honour student, he had been dreaming of making a fortune, not only just for himself but in order to be able to be of help to others. This he did as a true

Christian and a true patriot, in silence, almost in secret. He gave in to all the requests he thought were for the public good... He would pay for publications, finance missions, grant scholarships, facilitate journeys ... there was a whole list of poor people he helped and it is from them that the payment of his monthly obligations started."

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Εugenios Eugenidis (1882 - 1954)

[Εugenios Eugenidis (1882 - 1954)]

An astute businessman of international standing, a nobleman with a huge heart, that is who Eugenios Eugenides was. Born in Didymoteicho, on 22 December 1882, the son of Agapios Eugenides, a senior judge in the Ottoman Empire, and of Charikleia Afentaki, he left his native land early to begin his life, the brilliant and rare life of a great man.

His father, discerning even then that the English language was a means for a cosmopolitan career, urged him to study at Robert College, the school a great many of Constantinople Greeks attended. Eugenios graduated at the age of twenty.

By that time the young and dreamy Eugenios had already envisioned the possibility of Greece building large shipyards, on a par with the best in the world. Many of his colleagues would say of him in later years that "he possessed business foresight to the point of clairvoyance".

Indeed, he soon secured for himself an important position with the large British house Doro's Brothers' and in 1904, aged 24, he became the general manager of the large agency 'Reppen' and only a little later he became a partner. And the same time, he was involved in the lumber trade. In 1923, after the destruction of Asia Minor, he came to Greece and he took on the general agency of the ships of Svenska Orient Linien. A little later he established the 'Scandinavian Near East Agency'.

Not long after WW II had broken out, he went to Egypt and then to North Africa where he set up a line providing regular connections with South America by steamship. Finally, he went to Argentina and it is in the course of his stay there that he planned his post-war activities. Once more, his foresight told him that a strong flow of immigration was likely, and he turnd to ocean liners. He established 'Home Line', which, based in Genoa, managed four ocean liners that carried immigrants from Europe to North Africa, Australia, the United States and Canada.

Two years after the end of the war, in 1947, Eugenios Eugenides settled down in Vevey, Switzerland, and from there he ran his operations, which by now extended across the world. In 1953, his interest turned to Greece and he set up an ocean liner connection with North America and a regular freight line to South America while he continued with the development of the innovative activities of "Scandinavian Agency".

He was the first ship-owner to set an example with the repatriation of a ship to Greece, as the higher bidder for the newly built vessel Athinai that Greece had got as war reparations. The ship, under the Greek flag, sailed the Greece-South America line. Immediately afterwards, wishing to assert his business presence in Greece, he claimed the Greece-North America transatlantic line. He put on the ocean liner Atlantic, which was later renamed Queen Friederike. In 1954, Spyros Melas wrote in "Estia": "He (Eugenios Eugenides) confessed to me once, when I first met him as the General Consul for Finland in his Glyfada villa, that as far back as when seated in the classrooms of Robert College, where he had been an honour student, he had been dreaming of making a fortune, not only just for himself but in order to be able to be of help to others. This he did as a true Christian and a true patriot, in silence, almost in secret. He gave in to all the requests he thought were for the public good... He would pay for publications, finance missions, grant scholarships, facilitate journeys ... there was a whole list of poor people he helped and it is from them that the payment of his monthly obligations started."

Eugenios Eugenides had always held technical knowledge at all levels in high regard. About Greece in particular, he believed: "The disease that plagues our land is that the right people are not where they are most needed. Everybody says that Greece has great mineral wealth: iron, lead, chromium, bauxite etc. However, the young people of Greece study medicine, law and letters and we do not have much for them to do. And still we want to call ourselves a seafaring people. But we need to sweat blood to find worthwhile ship engineers who know about modern engines. Nowadays, countries cannot move ahead without experts, without well instructed people..."

On 7 June 1965, a grand ceremony in the presence of the country's political and intellectual leadership marked the opening of the building on Syggrou Avenue that was to house Eugenidis Foundation. The periodical Argo' says:

"Our country had long lacked a palace for education, science and technology. It has just recently acquired one. The generosity of the national patron Eugenios Eugenides has made amends for the powerlessness of our national financial want".

The open-handed donation to the young people of Greece made evident the genius of the national benefactor. He spoke of technical education more than 50 years ago, at a time when it was still in its infancy, proving the Chairman of the Association of Hell

enic Industries, Demetris Marinopoulos right, in saying when speaking to ship owners:
"It is not for your capital that we want you in Greece. It is for your heads..." But the Eugenides foundation has been something more than generous work and patriotic feelings. There is soul behind actions, the soul of Marianthi Simou, the sister of the great man, who courteously attended to the memory of Eugenios Eugenides by putting fully into action his posthumous wishes.

When in April 1954 he unexpectedly departed this life, he was already a businessman of international repute and in his own country a great benefactor. The president of the bar association on the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, Chauvery, told of a conversation he had with Eugenides just a few days before the latter's death.
- Mr. Eugenides, you really should not tire yourself so, you are wearing yourself out ignoring the advice of your doctors, Chauvery warned Chauvery warned him.
And Eugenides in a de profundis confession replied:
- My friend, I love work. I am passionate about the whirlpool of affairs, about overcoming obstacles, about fighting to achieve what I am striving for. I even take pleasure, please do not think of this as an exaggeration, in failure, because it is only thus that I come to feel the joy generated by triumph. This to me is all that is of interest in life. However, I wish for a sudden death, there while I am working, while all me mental powers are still intact, before old age and disease overcome me. May God permit me yet this good fortune, too...
God heard his prayers. He died on 22 April 1954, in Switzerland, during a reception that could have been in his honour.