DIMITRIOS NICOLAOS STYLIARAS

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DIMITRIOS NICOLAOS STYLIARAS Peacefully, in Athens, Greece on October 25, 2001 after a brief illness. Dimitrios Styliaras was born in the Village of Tsangarada, Greece on January 16, 1916, the fourth child of Nicolaos and his wife Eleni. He was predeceased by his brothers, George, Constantinos, Petros and Regas. After his early education in Tsangarada and in Zagazig, Egypt, he attended high school in Alexandria and obtained his Baccalaureate after completing studies at the French language collegiate Missi Mission Laique Francoise and the Lycee Francais dAlexandrie. In October, 1935 he enrolled as a student of architecture at the Technical University of Berlin Charlottenburg and graduated with a Masters Degree in Architecture. He obtained his Ph.D. in Berlin in 1944. After the war he remained in Germany where he became an assistant to Professor Gerhard Jobst and assisted and participated in various reconstruction projects relating to many cities in Germany which had been severely damaged during the war. In 1947 he participated in architectural courses at the Ecole Speciale dArchitecture in Paris, after which he returned to Alexandria to work as a design architect with architects Ferdinand Debane and Ernst Kopp with respect to designing hospitals for the Middle East and Germany. In 1958 he accepted a grant from the Fullbright Foundation and visited the United States as a scholar and lecturer at Columbia University, New York, and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1959 he accepted an invitation from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba where he lectured students of architecture, focusing on urban planning and studies until his retirement in 1988. After his retirement he incorporated Solarch Inc., a corporation involved in developing Deergrove, a residential development in Charleswood where, together with his former student Scott Craig, developed and sold residential building lots. Dimitrios was an active and supportive member of the Greek Community of Winnipeg and the Parish of St. Demitrios. Throughout his life he was a dedicated academic and a true intellectual. He was a respected, generous and kind person who gave much time and financial assistance to those in need. As a patron of the arts he sponsored exhibitions of artists who needed to make their works known. He will be sorely missed by his numerous friends in Winnipeg, Greece and Germany, as well as by his former students. He is survived by his niece Evangelia Karatza (Nikos), and his sister-in-law Maria Styliaras, widow of his late brother George, both of Athens, Greece. Funeral services were held in Athens on October 29, 2001, after which his body was taken for burial in the family crypt in Tsangarada, the place of his birth. A short memorial service will be held in his honour after the service of the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, November 11, at St. Demitrios, Greek Orthodox Church, corner of Shaftsbury and Grant Avenue, in Tuxedo, the Rev. Fr. Dimitrios Gianniou officiating.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Nov 09, 2001