We are saddened to announce the passing of Kostas Gialopsos on September 20, 2017 at the age of 60, after a brief but courageous battle with leukemia.
Kostas came to Alaska as a peasant from Corfu, Greece with nothing but the clothes on his back and a determination to succeed. Over multiple decades he became a self-made businessman most noted for his very successful Cordova restaurant Ambrosia.
At 42, following the Gialopsos tradition, he became a father to a son Stelios, who is now a commercial fisherman and has his father’s values of hard work, honesty, and a smile that welcomed a thousand friends and countless patrons. Honesty was his greatest virtue and at the end of the day he left his son his name and his legacy.
He was never afraid to laugh but never felt the need to laugh at anyone. Kostas once picked vegetables from dusk to dawn in the fields of Greece and the only thing he had to eat at the end of the day was what remained that could not be sold. Kostas did not share a love of vegetables, but never turned away a hungry patron, even if they could not pay.
Kostas has now passed on but his legacy lives on in his son and in the community, which was the tapestry of his life. Kostas Gialopsos — Work was love made visible.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made at Wells Fargo in the name of Kostas memorial account or cards may be mailed to the Gialopsos Family at P.O. Box 639, Cordova, AK 99574
