The loss of a dedicated benefactor
Kostas Apostolidis died at the age of 76, after a short battle with cancer. A man full of will and an unquenchable vision of progress. Born in Drama, in a family with refugee roots, he studied at the National Technical University of Athens, then in Canada and then at Harvard, with his own financial resources. By establishing Raycap in 1987, he gradually became one of the most renowned international “players” in the field of electrical protection of systems from sudden voltage fluctuations, such as e.g. after a lightning strike.
That’s how he started and came to create the first major patent, Strikesorb, for shielding electrical equipment from shock surges. Then he systematically developed this technology with a series of products that brought him partnerships with the FAA to shield the radars of all American airports, Vestas for all of its wind turbines, the telecommunications giant AT&T for cell phone stations and dozens of other powerful groups.
He invested in research, innovation and consistently high quality. Ηe looked for the best minds “and the best children” so that employees focus on work and not on their personal ambitions or money. This contributed to the creation of an exceptional human potential, bound and united. The atmosphere at the Drama factory testified to this.
He loved his special homeland as much as anyone. He did great projects such as restoring the Sandirvan Mosque, buying and expropriating two apartment buildings that had been built in the surrounding area of the mosque. A little while ago, a collaboration program with Benaki was launched to host exhibitions from the Museum’s artefact collections. The latter concerned imperial China. He had invited the architectural office of Norman Foster to make a study of the central square of the city so that a radical regeneration could take place. He financed excavations and together with his wife, Penny, visited archaeological sites and monuments in Greece, ready to support worthy efforts.
Throughout the Greek history, eminent entrepreneurs acting as benefactors undertake works of common interest, substituting for the official state, collectivities and institutions. The benefactor realises a personal epopee in the service of the common good. Benefaction for him represents a defining passion determining his personal and collective functioning.
In her book “Benefaction in Modern Greece, Theory and History”, Matoula Tomara – Sideris analyses history, ideology, personal and social mechanisms underlying the practice of benefaction. Her approach is based on the theory that benefactors represent organic intellectuals of the bourgeoisie during the age of its historical ascendency as well as in the present era.
