Throughout the years I have always been proud of my New England Puritan blood and my Harvard heritage and can only regret that I have not added any lustre to the fame of [the Class of 1888]. But though my life has not been a success, as men count success, I feel that I can at least say that, like all my dear classmates, I have ever tried to do my bit as honestly and faithfully as I could. And now, when so many of us have passed on before and when for the remnant of our band the sands are running out fast. I shall join with you in spirit in greeting our dear Alma Mater in one last acclamation of devotion and gratitude for what we learned at her knee – a debt that we can never hope adequately to repay. May she long continue to be "The herald of light and the bearer of truth"

Source: Harvard Class of 1888 Fiftieth Anniversary Report (1938)

Dimitrios Kalopothakis writes:

"During the year that I spent here, in Athens, after my return from America, I attended some of the lectures of the two directors of the American School for Classical Studies." [He was not, as stated in the last report, a teacher in the American School]. "In May, 1890, I proceeded to Berlin, where after seven semesters I took my Ph. D. last August (1893). About the same time I underwent a severe operation of my right leg, with very satisfactory results . Since my return home , I have been appointed lecturer on history in the National University here, with very hazy prospects of a professor's chair at some distant date."

"More important for me is my work as Athen's correspondent for several large foreign newspapers, of Berlin and of London. I have also written for several American periodicals, and intend to do so still oftener in the future. I may say that journalism is my career for the immediate future. That is all I have to tell you. I am still a sorry bachelor and have splendid prospects of securing the booby prize in the ardent matrimonial scramble which I see most '88 men engaged in. Nevertheless, nay, perhaps just because of this state of single blessedness, I have cherished the memories of Harvard and of '88 most affectionately, and will ever consider the ties sacred that bind me to you all. Should any '88 men turn up in Athens, they will find me ever glad to see them and to render them such services as lie in my power. We have had ten Harvard men here this winter, foremost among whom I must mention John Williams White; and I sincerely hope it may not be an impossibility to form a Harvard Club here eventually."

Dimitrios Kalopothakis writes:

"I forget exactly when I reported myself last to the class. In the winter of 1896-7 I succeeded in giving no lectures in the University. First, the students went out on a general 'strike,' owing to a row with the Medical School authorities. Then in January the Cretan troubles broke out afresh, and I was ordered by the 'Daily News ' to accompany Colonel Vassos' expedition to Crete. I was fortunate in being the only correspondent present at the landing and subsequent fighting at Bukolies and Livadia. Then I was ordered to Canea on February 21, just in time to witness the outrageous bombardment of the insurgents by the European fleets. A week later I was ordered off to Thessaly, and spent the five weeks preceding the war in riding over the ground which was subsequently the scene of operations. On April 9, I was again the only correspondent to accompany the raid of the Greek irregulars (Ethnike Hetairia) across the border, and returned to Larissa just in time for the formal declaration of war on the 16th. Then I followed the Thessalian campaign throughout with the Crown Prince's army, with its battles, reverses, and retreats. After the war I was sent by my paper into Thessaly to report on the depredations and excesses of the Turkish army of occupation; this mission I accomplished successfully in the disguise of a tobacco-pedler. Since then I have been at my regular correspondent's work here at Athens, and am about to publish a history of the war, presumably in New York."

"That is all about my humble person, except that I am 'still a bachelor,' and am likely to remain so. I am glad, however, to hear of so many '88 men married and prospering. I assure you that I still cherish the old class memories most affectionately. The only two '88 men I have seen for the post three years were Ewald, with whom I spent a fortnight in Berlin, early in 1895, and Woodman, to whom I had the delight of showing off the lions of Athens, and who nearly fell off the Parthenon."

Dimitrios Kalopothakis has not reported. The secretary has been informed that he has resigned the office of instructor in the University at Athens and his position as correspondent of the London Times and is now manufacturing olive oil on his farm in Arcadia, Greece.

Dimitrios Kalopothakis returned to Greece after graduation and has lived there ever since. He served as correspondent in Crete and Thessaly in the Turkish War in 1896, and in Macedonia in the Turkish War of 1912. He at one time had an olive plantation and other business, which were not profitable.

After a long period of silence and absence the members of the Class have had the great pleasure of seeing Dimitrios Kalopothakis in the winter of 1918-19, during which time he came to this country, and attended dinners held in New York and Boston. At both of these dinners he spoke with great interest to those who heard him. At the Boston dinner he was able to make some very illuminating statements as to the conditions in Greece, with which he was very familiar. He traveled from Athens to Paris on his way here with Premier Venizelos. He wrote in January, 1919 , of himself, as follows :

"I believe I have already reported up to the completion I have already reported up to the completion of my studies in Germany in 1893. Returning in that year to Athens, I took up journalism, and have since belonged to that much-abused profession, with the exception of a few years, in which I was foolish enough to go into business, that turned out a ghastly failure. It is now some ten years since I returned to the old trade, a sadder and a wiser man, and I have been the Athens correspondent of the Morning Post of London. Also since 1913 I have been on the permanent staff of the American Legation at Athens, doing a secretary's job, though unable to have that title, as I am not an American citizen. My connection with the Legation was a very fortunate circumstance for me in 1916, for, having made myself obnoxious to King Constantine 's pro-German propaganda, I was 'wanted' by his merry men during the man-hunting of the Venizelists, and only escaped imprisonment and maltreatment by staying within the Legation premises for forty-five days! Fortunately all is now quiet in Greece, and Venizelos is back in power. Since then my life has been the usual routine, except for a delightful visit to the United States this month, including a Class dinner in Boston, where I was delighted to see so many of my old classmates again, after an interval of thirty years and seven months."

My attention has been called to the leading article entitled "Premier Venizelos and tha Greek Claims," which appeared in your issue of February 10th. You will allow me, no doubt, to rectify the extremely incorrect data, upon which that article was based, for it would be a manifest injustice to Greece and to her great statesman, to allow such misstatements to pass unchallenged.

I send vou herewith the English translation elaborated by Prof. Carroll N. Brown, of the College of the City of New York and now being published by the American Hellenic Society of Mr. Venizelos' memorandum to the Peace Conference on the Greek claims.

In that memorandum, as yon can easily convince vourself, he does not ask "for the larger, half of Albania, all of Thrace, the Islands off the Asiatic seaboard of the Aegean, southern Bulgaria, Constantinople and part of Smyna."

(a) Northern Epirus, dubbed by Albanian nationalists "Southern Albania." which Greece asks for, if it can be considered a part of Albania at all, is not over a fourth of the the Albanian "State" set up in 1913 to please Italy and Austria. The only argument that has ever ben adduced to show that it is Albanian is the fact that the inhabitants speak Albanian. But the defenders of this thesis carefully suppress the fact that these same inhabitants also speak Greek (even the Moslems); this I can attest through having made an extended tour there In 1913, and everywhere I made my way with the help of the Greek language, being ignorant of Albanian. But what are the sentiments of these alleged "Albanians" of Northern Epirus? When, against their will, they were annexed to Albania in 1913, they flew to arms, organised a native army and a native provisional government, declared their union with Greece, and so successfully beat on the Albanian hordes that were led against them by Italian, Turkish and Dutch officers, that the great powers in 1914 were forced to open negotiations with them and to admit their own error in having tried to coerce their national feeling. Another proof of the ardent Greek feelings of these Northern Eptrotes is the long list of their magnificent public-spirited donations to the Greek State. The finest, public buildings in Athens are the gifts of men of Northern Epirus (or "Southern Albania"). Sinas of Moschopolis gave the splendid Academy of Fine Arts and the Astronomical Observatory. Bangas of Corytsa gave a big hotel whose revenues go to tne Greek navy fund. Arsakis of Premeti founded and endowed the Arsakion, or big girls' normal school. The Zanap brothers of Lambrovo gave the Zappion Exhibition building and park. Averoff rebuilt the splendid Panathenaic Stadium in white marble, founded a first-class, youth's reformatory and gave the Greek navy the battle-cruiser that bears his name and that played such a decisive part in the first Balkan war. Stournaras of Metsovo gave the magnificent Polytechnic School and the Military Academy; and many others, whom I omit for lack of space, testified by similar gifts and endowments their devotion to Greece.

(b) Greece does not ask for Southern Bulgaria, but only for that small coast province of western Thrace (Xanthi-Dedeagatch-Ortakioi) annexed to Bulgaria in 1913 with Greece's consent, and inhabited by three times as many Greeks as Bnlgars. The reason for this demand lies in the cruel oppression these 103,000 Greeks have suffered since 1913, at Bulgaria's hands.

(c) Greece, it is true, demands all of Turkish Thrace, because there are 366.000 Greeks there as against 508,000 Turks and 107,000 Bulgarians. And as it has been practically decided that Turkish rule can no longer be tolerated in lands where there is a strong Christian population, and as in Thrace the Turks form less than one-half of the total population (1.026,000). it is but just that the next largest section of the community should have the say as to the political future of their country.

(d) Greece does not demand Constantinople, unless the peace conference decides to give that city to some one outside power, in which case Greece has the best right to preference, bv reason of the strong Greek population in that city. But Mr. Venizelos prsupposes that it will be regarded as too important a center to be entrusted to the rule of any one power, and therefore he suggests its creation into a free and self-determination were to be blindly applied, governing State with considerable territory on either side of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, controlled and protected by the League of Nations.

(e) Greece in Asia Minor truly asks for the province of Smyrna and a part of the province of Broussa, comprising together 900,000 out of the 2,000,000 Greeks of Asia Minor. Rouchly speaking, Asia Minor is peopled by 7,000,000 Turks and 2,000,000 Greeks. In each single province there is a Turkish majority this would mean the perpetuation of Turkish rule. But, as I said, the nations are now fairly unanimous in deciding that Turkish rule shall be restricted to such districts as are purely Turkish in population. Just as the Arabs, Syrians and Armenians are to be freed from the Turkish yoke, so must also the Greeks of Asia Minor. And the only possible way is to give the Greeks two-ninths of the country, and the Turks seven-ninths, and let them resettle inside these boundaries. These two-ninths are naturallv to be located where the Greeks are strongest, that is, in the western provinces of Smyrna and Broussa. When yon call the "extension of Greek sway to Smyrna a far-fetched idea," you are evidently unaware that the population of the city of Smyrna is overwhelmingly Greek. The Turks themselves call it "Galour Ismir" and the county of Smyrna as well. According to the Turkish census of 1908. the city has 96,000 Turks and 243,000 Greeks, the county, or caza, has 219,000 Turks and 449,000 Greeks. Why is it so farfetched ?

(f) Greece does not demand "all of th Aegean Islands, on the Asiatic seaboard," for the simple reason that since 1913 she has been in possession of the greater part of them. Only the Dodecanese, the 12 small islands occupied temporarily by the Italians in 1912, are not under the Greek flag; and as these islands are inhabited exclusively by Greeks and have always enjoyed, even under the Turks, local home-rule, tbey demand now to be united with Greece, with such vigor and irresistible logic, that even Italy finds nothing to say against it except to point to that outrageous secret treaty of April, 1915, with the Entente powers, which assigned to her these islands. But those secret treaties are already so universally condemned and discredited that they will probably not even be discussed at the Peace Congress.

These, sir, are the claims of Greece that you predicted were coming in for a "paring" at ine conference. When you have read through Mr. Venizelos' memorandum, you will, I am sure, find it difficult to indicate where the "paring' should take place. For he does not, as you would seem to indicate, base these claims on the Iliad or Herodotus or on the great memories of the past, but on the hard facts of the present time on the statistics compiled by the Turks themselves, and he does this with a moderation that vindicates once more his world-wide reputation as one of the most just, as well as most far-sighted, of the statesmen of the world.

In the spirit of fairness, which is, I am sure, very dear to an American journalist of your standing, I trust that you will publish this letter of mine.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

DEMETRIUS KALOPOTHAKES.

Harvard Club, New York City, February 26th, 1919.

Source: The Buffalo Times (Buffalo, New York). 04 Mar 1919, p. 12

Dr. Demetrius Kalopothakes '88, of the American Legation at Athens and friend of Premier Venizelos of Greece, will lecture on "Greece in the Peace Conference" in the Fogg Art Museum next Thursday afternoon at 4.30 o'clock: Dr. Kalopothakes has spoken recently at several colleges in the country, including Yale and Cornell, and his lecture is one of a series given for the purpose of informing the American people about national aspirations and the present situation in Greece. It will be open to the public as well as to the members of the University.

Dr. Kalopothakes studied at Boston Latin School, received his A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1888, and the degree of Ph.D. at Berlin in 1893. He has been for some time a close student of the affairs of Greece through his connection with the American Legation.

Source: The Harvard Crimson, January 20, 1919 (https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1919/1/20/kalopothakes-to-speak-at-fogg-museum/)

Mr. Kalopothakes of Athens has translated the familiar lines.

Francis D. Kalopothakes, Harvard Class of 1888, a resident of Athens, has just published a Greek hymn book; it is a compilation and arrangement of familiar hymns and tunes. The hymns are metrically translated into Greek by Mr. Kalopothakes.

Mr. Kalopothakes was a well-known figure when in Cambridge, and is one of the few pure Greeks who ever had any connection with Harvard. He was one of the brightest men in his class, and was actively interested in tbe religions and musical life of the college.

Source: The Boston Globe. 09 May 1890, Fri, p. 7

Harper's Weekly will soon contain a large and handsomely illustrated supplement devoted to the forthcoming revival at Athens of the ancient Olympic Games, which will be attended by an immense concourse of athletes from all countries. The article is written by Demetrius Kalopothakes.Ph. D., the correspondent at Athens of The London Times. The article will contain a description ot the restored Stadion, in which the games will be held, and views of many other examples of modern Greek architecture, and an interesting account of the circumstances leading to the re-estalishment of the ancient sports.

Source: Harrisburg Telegraph [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]. 28 Sep 1895, p 2.

The learned Greek [Demetrius Kalopothakes, Ph. D.] grows enthusiastic over the inauguration of the [modern Olympics] in the home of ancient athletics. Not only will the celebration be on the plain of "violet crowned Athens," but in the Panathenaiko Stadium itself, which is being remodelled by a wealthy Alexandrian Greek at a cost of 800,000 francs for this very purpose. The amphitheater will be of more purely classical style, he asserts, than it was even in the day of Athenian splendor. It will seat 30,000 people, and the Stadlon course will afford a level area of 8,100 square-yards for the gymnastic contests and field sports. As by the International agreement full liberty is to be allowed the committee of each country to give the festival its peculiar stamp, the first gathering will be made as nearly Hellenic as possible. Instead of the 100-yards and 220-yards dashes In thtf foot races, there will be the single and double Attic stadium. There will be a Marathon long-distance race of thirty miles from Marathon to Athens, for which M. Breal of tha French Institute, haa offered the winner a silver amphora. There will even be a special Olympic hymn composed by Samaras, a celebrated Greek, who is to have charge of the festival music.

What will at once strike the reader of Dr. Kalopothakes article is that the modern Greeks are striving to impress their expected visitor with as close an imitation as possible of their heroic ancestors. Mindful of the fact that this has long been a reproach that the nation were content to stop at this, he makes an elaborate but unnecessary defense of this feature, besides going to some length to show the national progress since their political emancipation. He also takes pain a to say that the modern form of sport will not be ignored and that the Greeks expect to make a good account of themselves on bicycles. He thinks that the institution of these games will be of incalculable benefit to the rejuvenating Greeks, and it is to be hoped that this is the case. The liberality with which subscriptions have been made for entertaining their guests would be a flattering displsy of public spirit in any nation.

As tha Saxon race haa devoted more attention to feats of strength and skill than any other people since the ancient Hellenes, and as Americana by their recent triumphs over the English on land and water may fairly claim supremacy tn the athletic world, the great gathering at Athens is going to be particularly interesting here. May It prove as beneficial to the participating nations as were the ancient games in honor of the "father of gods and men," and may a considerable share of tha olive crowns be brought back across ths Atlantic. We are the political heirs of the Athenians, and if we have not rivalled them as yet in literature and the arts we have duplicated their achievements in war and commerce, and we can meet the best of the world ta thla Olympian revival.

Source: The Courier-Journal [Louisville, Kentucky]. 29 Sep 1895, p 18.

Says Dr. Demetrius Kalopothakis in Discussion of Nation's Right to Expansion.

Democracy wag declared to bo the center of the desires of the Greek nation in a lecture given by Dr. Demetrius Kalopothakls last night in Rockefeller Hall [Cornell University] as one of a series of talks to be given on the post-war status of the different allies, The lectures will be given under the auspices of the university.

Doctor Kalopothakia, long a resident of Athens and an acquaintance of President Schurman, in his embassy days said that the desires of Greece had been very much misunderstood. He said that there were four main regions which really belonged to Greece, but which were not under her control, and that his country sought through the Peace Council to regain control of these. The territories in question are Bulgarian-Thrace, Western Asia Minor, twelve islands of the eastern Mediterranean, and southern Albania. He explained that Thrace had been taken by Bulgaria after the first war in the Balkans.

Doctor Kalopothakis traced briefly the part which Greece played in the great war, and told of the change in national control which had permitted them to enter the struggle. He said that Greece was willing and anxious to enter the League of Nations.

"The demands made by Premier Venizelos are generally misunderstood," he said. "The claims of Greece before the Peace Conference should not be considered exorbitant. If there is one nation in the East that is democratic and liberty-loving, it is Greece."

The Ithaca Journal [Ithaca, New York]. 25 Feb 1919, p. 2

One day while visiting Mr. Anognos, Helen Keller was introduced to a young Greek gentleman, with whom she was auxious to exchange her Greek phrases, His name was only spelled to her once, yet three months later she asked Mr. Anagnos where Mr. F-r-a-n-c-i-s D-e-m-e-t-r-i-o-s K-a-l-o-p-o-t-h-a-k-e-s was.

Last June she was introduced to a young Greek student, whose long name consisting of 28 letters, was spelled to her only once. In repeating it, she made but one mistake this was corrected, and about three months later she asked where Mr. F-r-a-n-c-i-s D-e-ni-e-t-r-i-o-s K-a-l-o-p-o-t-h-a-k-e-s was.

Source: Evening Star (Washington, DC). 30 Jan 1889, p 7

TO MR. MICHAEL ANAGNOS

TUSCUMBIA, ALA., May 18, 1889.

My Dear Mr. Anagnos:

You cannot imagine how delighted I was to receive a letter from you last evening. I am very sorry that you are going so far away. We shall miss you very, very much. I would love to visit many beautiful cities with you. When I was in Huntsville I saw Dr. Bryson, and he told me that he had been to Rome and Athens and Paris and London. He had climbed the high mountains in Switzerland and visited beautiful churches in Italy and France, and he saw a great many ancient castles. I hope you will please write to me from all the cities you visit. When you go to Holland please give my love to the lovely princess Wilhelmina. She is a dear little girl, and when she is old enough she will be the queen of Holland. If you go to Roumania please ask the good queen Elizabeth about her little invalid brother, and tell her that I am very sorry that her darling little girl died. I should like to send a kiss to Vittorio, the little prince of Naples, but teacher says she is afraid you will not remember so many messages. When I am thirteen years old I shall visit them all myself.

I thank you very much for the beautiful story about Lord Fauntleroy, and so does teacher.

I am so glad that Eva is coming to stay with me this summer. We will have fine times together. Give Howard my love, and tell him to answer my letter. Thursday we had a picnic. It was very pleasant out in the shady woods, and we all enjoyed the picnic very much.

Mildred is out in the yard playing, and mother is picking the delicious strawberries. Father and Uncle Frank are down town. Simpson is coming home soon. Mildred and I had our pictures taken while we were in Huntsville. I will send you one.

The roses have been beautiful. Mother has a great many fine roses. The La France and the Lamarque are the most fragrant; but the Marechal Neil, Solfaterre, Jacqueminot, Nipheots, Etoile de Lyon, Papa Gontier, Gabrielle Drevet and the Perle des Jardines are all lovely roses.

Please give the little boys and girls my love. I think of them every day and I love them dearly in my heart. When you come home from Europe I hope you will be all well and very happy to get home again. Do not forget to give my love to Miss Calliope Kehayia and Mr. Francis Demetrios Kalopothakes.

Lovingly, your little friend,

HELEN ADAMS KELLER.

Source: Keller, Helen. "The Story of My Life. Parts I & II." Part III from the letters and reports of Anne Mansfield Sullivan (ca.1867-1936); Edited by John Albert Macy. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905.

The Harvard faculty have announced honors in Classics as follows: Final honors. … Demetrius Kalopathakes. …

Source: The Boston Globe. 21 Jun 1888, p. 3.

As part of the plan to use the 1896 Olympic Games as a confirmation of Greece's continuity, the nation presented Athens to the world with a heavy emphasis on both nationalism and antiquity. An article written in the new year before the Athens Games by Greek journalist Demetrios Kalopathakes for the American newspaper

The Nation summarised this method neatly. Kalopathakes wrote of a 'special satisfaction' afforded to the Greek people to be competing 'on the noble field of athletics, which their ancestors made immortal', doing his patriotic duty in reinforcing the link between modern and ancient Greece.241 He also described the plans for an 'artistic illumination of the great monuments of antiquity by night, a grand historical torchlight procession, representing memorable scenes from Greek history, ancient and modern' that would visually demonstrate this connection–the official Olympic report confirms that these events did indeed take place.242 Thus, the motif of continuity was promoted explicitly even before the outset of the Games; Coubertin himself reveals that 'the two letters “O.A.”, the Greek initials of the Olympic Games, and the two dates 776 BC, 1896 AD, indicating their ancient past and present renascence, could be seen everywhere'.243 These dates were also posted on the title page of the Olympic Report, connected by a hyphen, therefore presenting the Games in a way that overlooks the fact there was a hiatus of over 1500 years.

Source: Kalopathakes, Demetrios. "The Olympic Games at Athens in 1896." The Nation. 3 October 1895. p. 237.

Word has just been received here that Demetrius Kalopothakes, 80, formerly of Jamaica Plains and graduate of Roxbury Latin School and Harvard College, died, in Athens. Greece, on July 2.

A classmate of Charles Francis Adams, Harvard '88, he returned to the family home m Athens, served as London Times correspondent and as English instructor at the University of Athens.

Source: The Boston Globe. 08 Sep 1946, p. 47