The past few months have seen significant losses from the Nemean Games family. The most recent was on September 5, 2011, when George-Alexander Mangkakis passed away.
Born in Athens in 1922, he studied Law in Athens and then at the University of Munich where he earned a Ph.D. in penal law in 1953. A knowledgeable and principled man, Mangkakis was imprisoned from 1969 until 1972 when the University of Heidelberg elected him to a professorship which resulted in his release from prison and his exile from Greece.
Returning to Greece in 1974, Mangkakis resumed the professorship in the Law School of Athens University to which he had been elected in 1968, and he was elected to parliament and served in a number of ministerial posts (Public Works, Justice, Health) over the next 15 years, and also served as the Director of the National Bank of Greece in 1981-82.
His involvement with Nemea began in 1982 when he and his archaeologist wife visited the site, and was followed the next April when he, together with Melina Merkouri and Margarita Papandreou, sponsored the Benaki Museum’s exhibition on the Temple of Nemean Zeus.
Mangkakis was a charter member of the Honorary Committee of our Society, and frequently came to help when problems emerged. His loss leaves a gaping hole in our foundations.
