During my stay in Greece, from August of 1945 to February of 1946, as mentioned above, I read an article in an Athenian newspaper that AHEPA was planning a drive to raise ten million dollars to build a 1000 bed hospital in Athens. The article went on to say that the donors who gave a specified amount would have their names engraved on plaques and placed over the doors of the rooms. When I discussed the matter with a few of my acquaintances in Athens they all thought it was a foolish idea. For one thing, Athens could not support a hospital of that size. They also felt that it would take many years to raise such a large amount of money. And finally, they pointed out that as a result of the war in 1940, the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens was left uncompleted. There was an urgent need to complete the final wing of the hospital in order to serve the needy. It could be completed in a matter of months and it would provide an additional 285 beds.

I saw the merits of this idea. I felt that a plan that the AHEPA inaugurated would never be completed. It was too costly and too time consuming. After my return to the United States, I attended the National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland on August 22, 1946. I brought up the subject of the hospital. I explained that AHEPA should abandon the idea of building a new hospital and instead complete the remaining wing of the Evangelismos Hospital. The hospital officials had agreed to honor the promise to place plaques with the names of donors over the doors. A lot of opposition developed. The convention body came to no decision on the issue.

At the next AHEPA convention, held in Los Angeles, in 1947, the subject was brought up again. I was able to convince a number of influential Ahepans to agree to the idea of transferring the money for the hospital to the Greek War Relief. It would, in turn, see to it that the new wing at Evangelismos Hospital was completed. The Greek War Relief had, at that time, taken on the task of building five mini-hospitals throughout Greece. These small hospitals were being built in Filiatra, Thebes, Kalavrita, Igoumenitsa, and at Karistos on the island of Evia. The war relief committee had architects, engineers and other knowledgeable people to do the job. The resolution passed. The money that had already been collected was turned over to the Greek War Relief. The committee in turn negotiated with the board of trustees of the hospital and arranged to complete the wing of the hospital. It was to be called, naturally, the AHEPA Pavilion of Evangelismos Hospital.

The following year I made a trip to Athens with the Supreme President of AHEPA, William Helis. There we met with the mayor of Athens who immediately admonished us for not proceeding with the original plans to build a new hospital. I explained to him that it was my idea to complete the construction of Evangelismos Hospital, and that I felt that it was in the best interests of Athens. We then met with the Board of Trustees of Evangelismos Hospital. If I remember correctly, Queen Frederika was present at the meeting. She was honorary chairman of the Hospital Trustees. She put her signature on the agreement between the Hospital, the Greek War Relief and the AHEPA. Another signer was the Governor of the National Bank of Greece.

The Trustees suggested that instead of completing the construction ourselves, we should let them do the work. They had their own architects, engineers, and specialists in the construction business and they could do the job quicker, better and cheaper. We could turn the money over, a little at a time, to be sure the work was done. We did some investigating and found out that they were correct. As a result, we made arrangements for them to do the work. Each week they would submit the bills to our office for review and approval. The work was completed in a couple years to the full satisfaction of all involved.