Peter Angelos, son of immigrants, remembered as a Greek Baltimorean ‘success story’

Amid the annual celebration of the anniversary of Greece’s independence, Greek Baltimoreans also honored the legacy of one of their champions.

Peter Angelos, the longtime Orioles owner who died Saturday, was remembered for giving back to the Greek American community that he came from after his rise to fortune.

The son of Greek immigrants who later became a successful class-action attorney before taking ownership of the Orioles, Angelos “was a poster child for all the possibilities America has to offer,” said Art Dimopoulos, executive director of the National Hellenic Society, a Greek American organization that Angelos supported. His son John Angelos is still a member.

Even after his rise, Peter Angelos “lived a humble and simple life” and “never forgot the little man” through his work as an attorney and as an MLB club owner, Dimopoulos said.

“We don’t forget where we came from,” he said.

Angelos’ parents, John and Frances, emigrated from the Greek island of Karpathos to Western Pennsylvania, where Peter was born, before moving to Baltimore. Living in Highlandtown and working at his father’s tavern, a young Peter came into contact with the immigrant populations — from Greece or elsewhere — who came to Baltimore to work at Bethlehem Steel, and whom he would later represent in court amid asbestos injury litigation that he spearheaded.

At the outset of Sunday’s Greek Independence Day Parade in Southeast Baltimore’s Greektown neighborhood, outgoing U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes recalled Angelos, who was the first Greek American member of the Baltimore City Council when he was elected in 1959, as one of several influential Greek Baltimoreans — along with longtime H&S Bakery owner John Paterakis Sr. and Sarbanes’ father, former U.S. Rep. Paul Sarbanes.

“The most important thing about Peter Angelos was his heart,” said Chuck Paterakis, John Paterakis’ son who served as the grand marshal of Sunday’s parade. He also called Angelos and his family a “good example” of successful Greek Baltimoreans who gave back to their community. Angelos and Paterakis’ father attended Patterson High School together, he noted.

Angelos was a member of the congregation at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Mid-Town Belvedere, where he offered great financial support, said Stefanos Niktas, the church’s cantor, who also received honors at Sunday’s parade.

The class-action attorney was an unusual MLB club owner when he bought the Orioles from bankruptcy in 1993, taking the team back to local control. Rather than by owning a big business, he made his riches by taking them on in court. Angelos was also the only Greek American to own an MLB club — and was among just a few to own any team in a “Big Four” professional sports league, including Los Angeles Chargers owner Dean Spanos (as well as his father, Alex Spanos, who died in 2018) and Ted Leonsis, majority owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics.

“Not that many Greek Americans own athletic teams,” said Basil Mossaidis, the executive director of the Order of AHEPA, the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association.

“Peter was a proud Greek, a father, a fierce advocate for the city of Baltimore and for his clients,” Leonsis said on X, formerly Twitter. “He was the man who saved the Orioles — because he loved the City of Baltimore.”

Mossaidis’ nonprofit, the largest member association for Americans with Greek heritage, inducted Angelos into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003. Angelos was a member of the organization for over 50 years and was “always willing to participate” in its activities, such as bringing members to Camden Yards for a Greek American day. He also funded the group’s development of affordable senior housing units located on South Clinton Street in Canton.

“When he was asked, he would step up,” Mossaidis said, calling Angelos a “stalwart supporter” of the organization who would help with its programs at both the national and local levels. Greek American icons like Angelos often “started with very little or nothing and built a tremendous wealth, not just with money but with a legacy,” he said.

“In the Greek American community, we look to people like Mr. Angelos and say, ‘What a great success story: He worked hard, made a lot of money and gave back to his community,'” Mossaidis said.

Angelos was also instrumental in the development of Greece’s national baseball team ahead of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The only Greek American club owner in MLB, Angelos led the effort to scout out a group of American players with Greek roots to play for Greece, where baseball is not a major sport. Among the players on the 2004 team were an early career Nick Markakis and Clay Bellinger, who had already won the World Series with the Yankees twice by the time he was practicing with the Greek national team at Camden Yards.

The Greek national team, headed and largely bankrolled by Angelos, placed second in the 2003 European Baseball Championship, a tournament in which Greece continues to play. But the team went 1-6 in its first and only Olympic Games, beating only Italy.

The project was “low key” with “little fanfare,” though Angelos put his whole heart into creating the national team, Dimopoulos said.

“There are just so many instances of him giving, doing so many good things without needing the attention,” he said.