Chris Spirou is a politician in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

in the United States. He was born in the town of Porti in the Prefecture of

Karditsa Karditsa ( el, Καρδίτσα ) is a city in western Thessaly in mainland Greece. The city of Karditsa is the capital of Karditsa regional unit of region of Thessaly. Inhabitation is attested from 9000 BC. Karditsa ls linked with GR-30, the ...

, Province of

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

, and migrated in 1956, at the age of 13, to the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

.Chris Spirou, profile at Hellenic Technologies
He attended Saint Anselm College,

Goffstown, New Hampshire Goffstown is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 18,577 at the 2020 census. The compact center of town, where 3,366 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Goffst ...

, and holds a master's degree in urban studies and social change from the short-lived Goddard-Cambridge Graduate Program in Social Change, the records of which are maintained by

Goddard College Goddard College is a progressive education private liberal arts low-residency college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle, Washington. The college offers undergraduate and gra ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. Spirou has been a guest lecturer in many universities including

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

and taught a course as an adjunct professor at New Hampshire College (now

Southern New Hampshire University Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is a private university between Manchester and Hooksett, New Hampshire. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, along with national accreditation for some hospita ...

). In 1970 he was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Spirou served as House Minority Leader from 1975 to 1984 and was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1984, but was defeated by incumbent John Sununu, Spirou later served as chair of the state Democratic Party, but returned to Greece in 1993. In 1994, Spirou was elected president of the board of the Hellenic American Union (HAU), an Athens-based non-profit association founded in 1957 to promote U.S.-Greek educational and cultural ties, including through English teaching and testing. Income from HAU's testing program funded the creation of the

Hellenic American University The Hellenic American University was founded in 2004 in Manchester, New Hampshire, United States as a private degree-granting institution of higher education by an act of the New Hampshire State Legislature. The university has instructional loc ...

by an act of the New Hampshire state legislature in 2004, with Spirou as first president. He remained on the board of the University after stepping down as president in 2012. While in Athens, Spirou established friendly ties with Slobodan Milošević, the president of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, who invited him to be a member of the Serbian delegation to the Dayton peace talks in 1995. Other political initiatives included his foundation of the Pan Orthodox Congregation of Hagia Sophia, Inc., with the aim of reconverting

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

into a working Orthodox church, and public opposition to the 2018

Prespa agreement The Prespa agreement,; In mk, Договорот од Преспа, translit=Dogovorot od Prespa or Преспански договор, ''Prespanski dogovor'' also known as the Treaty of Prespa, the Prespes deal or the Prespa accord, is an agre ...

between Greece and the renamed

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

References

External links

*http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/10/chris-spirou-to-romney-stop-offending.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20121113014440/http://www.hellenicnews.com/index.php/omogenia-a-national-issues/itemlist/tag/chris%20spirou * Candidates in the 1984 United States elections Democratic Party members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives Greek emigrants to the United States Saint Anselm College alumni Goddard College alumni 1943 births Living people Southern New Hampshire University faculty People from Mouzaki {{NewHampshire-politician-stub