LYNN — Family and community have always been important to the Demakes/Demakis families.
Thomas L. Demakes and his sons work together at Old Neighborhood Foods, and they were educated together, literally. Now, his youngest son, Andrew, 38, has become involved in another family undertaking: He has become only the third person in its 63-year history to preside over the Agganis Foundation.
Family patriarch Attorney Charles Demakis prompted The Item and the Red Sox to establish the foundation in 1955 after the untimely death of Harry Agganis, who is considered by many to be the greatest athlete in the history of Lynn. “The Golden Greek” was a star in football, baseball and basketball at Classical and, later, at Boston University. At the time of his death at age 26 of a pulmonary embolism on June 27, 1955, he was a first baseman for the Red Sox.
Agganis’ coach and mentor, the late Harold Zimman, a sports publisher and U.S. Olympic committeeman, ran the foundation for 37 years until handing off in 1992 to Edward M. (Ted) Grant, now The Item’s publisher. Grant presided over and grew the foundation for the next 26 years, until Andrew Demakes took over last fall.
The Demakis/Demakes families have a long history with the foundation. Charles Demakis’ son, Attorney Thomas C. Demakis, is the immediate past chairman and Thomas L. Demakes is a trustee and one of the foundation’s most generous benefactors.
“I know my father and uncle Tom (Demakis) had always been involved, and it was something my father always talked about.
“He talked about Harry while we were growing up, of what an instrumental part of the Greek community he was, and he made sure it was important to my brothers (Tim and Elias) and me.”
This is why he agreed to come on board, he said.
“My father and others in the family asked if I was interested in joining the team,” Demakes said. “There’s where it all starts.”
He is especially proud — and keenly aware — of what he is taking over.
In the most significant reshuffling of the foundation since 1990, Ted Grant, Tom Demakis and Mike Shanahan passed the Agganis torch last October to Demakes, Greg Agganis (a grandnephew of Harry Agganis), and Jeremy Hmura as president, chairman, and treasurer, respectively.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be associated with the foundation,” he said. “I have big shoes to fill … Ted, Uncle Tom, Mike Shanahan. They’re all guys who worked really hard to build the foundation to what it is today. I’ve inherited a solid foundation, and hope to continue to grow and expand on it for years to come.”
When Grant assumed control of the foundation, it had awarded $184,411 in scholarships; it has now awarded $2,095,000. It sponsored one high school all-star game (football); it now sponsors nine (baseball; softball; boys and girls basketball, lacrosse and soccer; and, of course, football).
Its mission is to advance academic and athletic achievement.
It has succeeded nicely — and it’s Andrew Demakes’ hope to grow it.
Education, said Demakes, is a key component to the family — so much so that he, his father and two brothers got their MBAs at the same time at Suffolk University night school.
He graduated from St. John’s Prep and the University of Vermont, with a major in English and minor in business. After studying commercial real estate at BU, he joined his two brothers and his father in enrolling at Suffolk.
“My father was the driving force behind that,” Demakes said. “He is just a big believer of continuing education. I think he was close to 70 when we finished (five years ago).”
He also gives credit to his mother, Marillac (better known by her nickname, Peachie), who, he said, basically raised the three sons.
“My father was a machine,” he said. “He got up at 4 in the morning to go to work, and stayed late. It was left to my mother to raise three boys. She’s the rock of the family.”
Demakes, who is single and lives in Boston, took over the foundation in time to oversee the most recent edition of Agganis Week, which ended June 27. And, he said, he couldn’t have asked for a better week.
Demakes considers himself fortunate that one of the most vital holdovers from the old regime was Agganis All-Star Games executive director Paul Halloran — the man who coordinates the nine athletic events and awards ceremony that stretches from Sunday through Thursday, when the final gun sounded on the football game.
“Paul does a great job putting everything together,” Demakes said. “I don’t know what we’d do without him.”
Demakes said that he and his team will be looking to tweak the event, even if only in small ways, in the future.
“We are constantly thinking of how we can get better,” he said. “We’ll always be looking for ways we can improve things, and of how we can get better involvement, more attendance, things like that. We will have to sit down with our team and go over everything that happened this year. Then we’ll think about 2020.”