Yale University

In Memoriam

Panayotis (Panos) A. Koumandos

January 22, 2021

Panos Koumandos died on November 18, 2020. Here are his obituary and other remembrances. Karl Ziegler ’64 provided Panos’ obituary with the following commentary:

I am forwarding an evocative and lovely obituary prepared by Panos’ widow, Rena, in English, with a special request to Tony Lavely to include in the Class of 1964 Necrology.

Panos was my roommate in both freshman and sophomore years (Pierson College). In sophomore year we roomed with Sheldon [Leader] and Nick [Danforth].

We all enjoyed both the gentle humor and friendship Panos shared with all who knew him. He will be much missed.


Below are the follosing:


Obituary


Panos Koumandos
1964 graduation

Panos (Panagiotis) Koumantos passed away on November 18, 2020 in Athens Greece after a year’s difficult but courageous battle with leukemia.

He was born on January 4, 1941 in the Greek mountain town of Kalavrita, where his father was serving as high-school teacher in literature. Before the age of three, in December 1943, he lost his father when the Germans, in a retaliatory act, killed all the male population of the town above the age of 13.

After a very difficult childhood, from the fourth grade until the end of high school, he succeeded, after examinations, in getting a full tuition and board scholarship at Athens College. This was a life-changing experience for him that led to his going to the U.S. for Camp Rising Sun summer school and for university studies, always with full scholarships. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.S. in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University. Following a short period of working for Exxon in New York, he returned to Athens where he had a successful career in high-level management positions both in the private and in the public sector, for over forty years.


Panos Koumandos
in later years

In 1970 he married his beloved Rena and had two children: Nassos, an architect, married to Elena who gave him a grandson (two-year old Panagiotis Junior), plus Lila, a university professor of biology at the Agricultural University of Athens.

We will always remember Panos for his sweet smile, sincerity, modesty, kind words for everyone, deep empathy for others, great love for life and particularly for his family, endless disposition for offering to others and causes he believed in, unfailing optimism, and especially for his unique humor.

God rest his soul in peace.

Message from Rena

Hello all,

Regarding the confusion on the spelling of Panos' last name, here is the story. It all depends on how each time the Greek authorities decide to transcribe the last name in English and which is used officially in the passport. Hence over the years, there have been three different spellings: Coumandos (which I believe is the spelling Panos used while studying at Yale), then there was Koumandos, and the latest version is Koumantos. As you can realise, phonetically there is no difference. So, for Yale's purposes you can use any spelling you prefer, it makes no difference.

With my best regards,
Rena

[Editor's note: Our 1964 Class Book shows Panos' name as Panayotis Athanasios Coumandos, whereas our 50th Reunion Class Book shows his name as Panayotis A. Koumandos. Both publications give his nickname as Panos.]

Remembrance by Nick Danforth ’64

I write this farewell in January 2021; Panos would have turned 80 this week. Yes, he was more than a year older than the rest of us four Pierson roommates, so in several ways we were kids compared to him. Nonetheless, like Reagan, he never criticized us for our "youth and inexperience". Instead, as a sturdy and thoughtful roommate, he often set a wiser, more mature example of how to be both polite, diplomatic, and scholarly. But at the same time he balanced his serious side, when necessary and appropriate, with plenty of good humor.

Panos' balance of sophistication and jocularity in the sixties was just as evident when I visited Panos and Rena in Athens fifty years after graduation for a wonderful mini-reunion in 2014, traveling with my partner (Dr. Robin Jones, who'd lived in Athens for years while her dad was a CIA Station Chief, before she'd joined Yale '77). We feasted in a taverna garden in Kifissia with plenty of ouzo, moussaka, baklava, and retsina to lubricate our toasts, my first meeting with Panos since graduation. Panos knew the nearby International School Robin had attended.

We were able to persuade Panos to share, though modestly, his extraordinary achievements in bringing together Greece's public and private sectors in national infrastructure investment and management — a specialty in which he excelled for decades as one of Greece's most respected and successful public servants — even during the nation's years of grave economic crisis. 

The morning-after was even more delightful. Panos and Rena arranged for Robin and me to tour the Acropolis with their articulate son, Nassos, a young architect who's been working for years to protect the Parthenon from Athens' growing pollution. For us non-economists, Panos' and Nassos' stories were both particularly compelling: while his savvy son left us dazzled by ancient Greek architecture, Panos filled us with hope for Greece's future.

It's a cliché to say it, but as we too, like Panos, approach our 80s, a mere 50 years cannot "break the friendships formed at Yale." For me, catching up with our remarkable roomie in Athens reminded me that Yale friendships can bridge international cultural, geographical, and professional divides as strongly as they bridge the gaps of "time and change" brought by half a century of separation.

Panos may long be remembered throughout Greece for managing and engineering collaboration between public and private sectors, but I'll never forget his irrepressible dedication to both parts of his exemplary life: his devoted public service, on one hand, and his joys of family and friends on the other. I'll miss those happy days with Panos and his family for the rest of my years.


Essay from 50th Reunion Class Book

by Panos Koumandos in 2014

Hello from Athens Greece. Our experience for the last three years has been a continuous thriller, but I am optimistic that Greece will come out of the crisis in better shape than before. The multiple much-needed structural reforms taking place need time to bear fruits.

On a more personal note, when I was at the age of three, in December 1943, the German occupation forces executed over 500 males in my small town of Kalavrita, plus another 200 in the nearby villages, and burned them all down as well. My father was one of the executed. This execution of innocent civilians was simply horrible and has no doubt marked my life. Thus, my early childhood was not easy, but in many ways I was one of the fortunate ones. I had a wonderful and very strong-willed mother who nurtured me and I was, also, given the opportunity to be educated at top-notch schools.

At the age of nine I was awarded a full scholarship and studied for ten years at the finest boarding private school in Athens — Athens College — mainly on American aid, which was generously offered to all of Greece after the war and for which I feel great gratitude.

After Athens College, I was again awarded a full scholarship at Yale where, after graduation in Engineering, I got a B.A. in Economics, having the opportunity to take additional courses in the humanities, which have helped me become a better person and live a fuller life. I then went on to get an M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon and was afterwards hired by Exxon, staying on for a year in New York.

Returning to Greece in 1968, I started with Exxon and continued with a number of high-level managerial jobs, primarily in the private sector. I retired in 2007. Throughout my managerial career, I had the opportunity to put in use many of the things I was taught at Yale and to learn a lot of things not taught at Yale. My major objectives were to try to improve the companies' capabilities and effectiveness, keep my subordinates and fellow employees motivated and satisfied, and assist them in their personal development. Greece is a country full of surprises and obstacles, great mismanagement and plenty of graft, and I have tried hard to make my contribution in changing things for the better. Also, l have always tried to help others in any way I can, both inside the companies and outside. This, I believe, is what characterizes me and gives me great satisfaction.

I have also been very fortunate with my marriage, for 43 years now, with Rena, who is U.S.-educated as well and has managed to excel professionally in spite of her sex and to balance work with family life in an exceptional way. We have two wonderful children, who have studied at American universities (Yale and MIT) and are working here in Greece now. Our son is married, but we have no grandchildren yet.

Through my own experience I have come to realize the extreme importance of a good education. Within a very complex and rapidly evolving world, education is the only way to help people live a more meaningful and fulfilling life for themselves and others.