Farewell to Lambros Papantoniou, Washington Greek Journalist

Washington, D.C. Friends and Family members and Fellow Journalists filled The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sophia June 2, 2009 for a Tris-Agion Service for Lambros Papantoniou who passed away to the Lord May 28, 2009 at a Washington Hospital. Lambros who worked as a Journalist for various Greek and Greek American Newspapers including the Bi-Weekly Greek News for the last 6 years was loved by all who had contact with him. Greek News partners A. Zoupaniotis and D.Panagos from NY said that no-one can ever fill Lambros shoes in this business. Lambros was everywhere, he loved Greece and Cyprus and America where he lived and worked for the last 35 years. Fellow Journalists from the State Dept. said that they learned to love and respect their job from Mr. Lambros as they called him. Lambros always had Greece and Cyprus in his heart. Lambros always had a question regarding his favorite issues. Fr. Ioannis Tavlaridis and Fr. Dimitirs Antokas read and performed a Memorial and Tris-Agion Service prior to Lambros Departure to be burried in his Homeland Mandra, Greece. The Greek Flag will accompany Lambros throughout his last journey to his home in Greece said Ambassador Alexandros Mallias.
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Lambros Papantoniou, Greek Journalist Died.

May 28, 2009 - Lambros Papantoniou of Washington D.C. passed away peacefully this morning.

He was 63, weeks shy of his birthday on July 4th, the American holiday which filled this proud immigrant son of Greece with immense honor.

Mr. Papantoniou, known to official Washington for decades as "Mr. Lambros," was the Washington diplomatic correspondent for the Greek daily newspaper Eleftheros Typos, Radio Thessaloniki, and the U.S.
weekly newspaper Greek News.

He was born on July 4, 1945 in Mandra Xanthi, a village in Greece's Western Thrace region. His parents were refugees, who fled from Asia Minor in 1922 to settle in Greece.

He studied law at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, and arrived in the United States in 1973. He studied international law and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained his Master's Degree and Juris Doctorate.

In 1975, after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, he began working as a journalist, specializing in U.S. foreign policy issues relating to Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and the Balkans. Over the course of a prodigious career, he was correspondent to many Greek and Greek-American Media, and participated at numerous foreign policy conferences and panels in the United States, Greece, Cyprus and Australia.

A member of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, D.C., he is survived by three sisters and one brother in Greece, one brother in Boston, and his beloved nephew Stavros Stavrakis, who resides in Philadelphia with his wife Vasiliki and their children Prometheus, Aristotle and Elektra Cynthia.