John C. Pappas (1906–1972) was a Greek-American jurist and businessman.

Early life

Pappas was born in Filiatra, Greece. In 1911, Pappas immigrated to the United States with his family. He spent his early years in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he worked part-time in his father's store. After graduating from Somerville High School, Pappas attended

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

and Boston University's College of Business Administration before transferring to

Boston University School of Law Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an eli ...

. He graduated in 1925 and passed the bar the following year. In 1939 he married Katherine Plakias. The Pappases had seven children and resided in

Belmont, Massachusetts Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is a western suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, United States; and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town's population stood at 27,295 ...

before moving to Milton, Massachusetts.

Politics

In 1928, Pappas was appointed to the executive committee of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. In 1933 he was appointed assistant secretary to Governor

Joseph B. Ely Joseph Buell Ely (February 22, 1881 – June 13, 1956) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Massachusetts. As a conservative Democrat, Ely was active in party politics from the late 1910s, helping to build, in conjunction with ...

. In 1935, he was appointed a special justice of the Gloucester District Court. He remained on the bench until his resignation in 1965.

Business

Pappas and his brother Thomas took over their father's chain of neighborhood food stores in 1936. They began a successful import business and a liquor distributorship and were the largest importer of Spanish olives in the United States. Along with

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

and Republic Steel, the Pappas family financed oil refineries, chemical plants, and steel mills in Greece under the name Esso Pappas. The Pappases also owned shipping line which had a fleet of eight tankers in 1965. On May 1, 1946, a consortium led by Pappas acquired controlling interest in

Suffolk Downs Suffolk Downs is a former Thoroughbred race track in East Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The track opened in 1935 after being built by Joseph A. Tomasello for a cost of $2 million. It was sold in May 2017 to a developer who plans to crea ...

at a Federal Court-directed

public auction In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

for $3.6 million. Pappas' bid exceeded offers made by Joseph F. Timilty, Henry Simberg (represented at the auction by Paul A. Dever), and Bay Meadows Racetrack general manager Bill Kyne. Pappas was Suffolk Downs' chairman from 1946 to 1948 and was president of the racetrack from 1948 until he sold it in 1964. In the 1960s, Pappas branched out into real estate development. He funded the construction of apartments in Boston's South End and Kenmore Square, office buildings in South Boston and

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

, and a 500,000-square-foot warehouse in Dorchester for Sears, Roebuck & Co. The success of the Sears project led the company to have Pappas manage construction of a new store and parking garage in White Plains, New York. There, Pappas constructed White Plains Plaza, a 15-story office building that was leased quickly upon completion. White Plains soon became a premier location for corporations and the Pappas family, under the leadership of John's son Jim Pappas, constructed two more buildings in the city before declaring bankruptcy in 1992. Pappas died on December 3, 1972 at the age of 66.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pappas, John C. 1906 births 1972 deaths American horse racing industry executives American real estate businesspeople Boston University School of Law alumni Greek emigrants to the United States Massachusetts Democrats Massachusetts lawyers Massachusetts District Court judges People from Belmont, Massachusetts People from Milton, Massachusetts People from Somerville, Massachusetts Suffolk Downs executives People from Filiatra Horse racing venue owners