A tribute in Neos Kosmos to centenarian Dionysis Gendis attracted attention in Greece, where it stirred memories from another era.

Those who had been under his care and guidance during the difficult postwar years remembered him decades later, calling him “the mentor of our childhood” in a letter published in Kathimerini.

“The gods love good people,” brothers Dr Christos and Antonis Venetis write in a piece published in Kathimerini in early June, reflecting on the remarkable personality of “Kyrios Nionios”, as the children knew him.

“Although we often remember Nionios, we were reminded of him once again by an article published in the Greek-Australian newspaper Neos Kosmos to mark his 102nd birthday. The article was full of praise for Nionios’s character. Those of us who knew him as young boys in the Children’s Homes would add a great deal more.”

Nionios devoted years to the care and education of children who had experienced poverty, orphanhood and the devastating consequences of civil war.

They describe a man without formal academic qualifications or training in education, yet one who possessed a rare natural gift for guiding and inspiring young people.

“Nionios was a versatile athlete, an exceptional educator, a fair team leader and referee, and an unforgettable self-taught teacher who constantly advised us that physical activity is our true wealth. He was not proven wrong. That is why he celebrated his 102nd birthday!” they continue.

Nionios (left) as a young man in Corfu where he was born and raised.

Christos and Antonis Venetis spent part of their childhood at the Children’s Home of Ziros in Filippiada, an institution of the 1950s built beside Lake Ziros with the support of the Swiss Red Cross. It was there that they met Nionios and experienced his influence during a period when Greece was trying to heal from the wounds of the Civil War.

Dionysis Gendis now lives in a quiet suburb of Melbourne, thousands of miles away from where he devoted years to the care and education of children who had experienced poverty, orphanhood and the devastating consequences of civil war. These children found refuge in the Children’s Homes, also known as the Paidopoleis of Queen Frederica, institutions established across Greece to house child victims of the conflict.

“Nionios had no degree, and yet he was unique in the way he understood us”

“He was like an alien to us”

“Imagine that we were children from the mountains, exhausted by the Civil War,” cardiologist Christos Venetis told Neos Kosmos. He had arrived at the children’s home from the Keravnia Mountains at the age of 10 or 11, when fighting was still occurring daily around his village, and homes were being burned. He and his brother found refuge in the protected environment of the Paidopolis.

“There, Nionios played a crucial role. As one of the children said, he was like an alien to us. He taught us so many things. Besides sports, he taught us how to read a clock, how to sing in a choir, even how to survive when food was scarce. I don’t know how he knew all of this. He had an incredible pedagogical ability that I have never seen since. He had no degree, and yet he was unique in the way he understood us. When there was a fight, who would be called to resolve it? Nionios.”

Cardiologist Christos Venetis remembers Nionios as a mentor of his childhood.

“I felt for these these children”

After all, Nionios’s own life had been marked by similar hardships. Orphaned by his father, he knew firsthand the pain of loss and insecurity. For that reason, as he once confided to us, he felt deep empathy for the children entrusted to his care.

“I felt their pain,” he said. “I also lost my father and I suffered —not only from hunger and war, but also emotionally, because I lost my father’s support.”

From the very beginning, he tried to earn their trust.

Nionios and Ioanna when they first met.

“I am not your teacher,” he would tell them. “I will treat you as an older brother. But I want you to listen to me, because everything I tell you comes from the heart.”

It was because of his experience in scouting and sport, that Nionios was invited to work in the Children’s Homes. He had been one of the pioneers of sport in Corfu, founding the island’s first basketball team and leading a water polo team in competitions against historic clubs. But that all came to an end when the Civil War broke out.

“We will not let you go”

He spent ten years in the children’s homes before a new dream took shape after seeing images from the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games: to migrate to Australia. He had already met and fallen in love with Ioanna, who later became his wife.

His final farewell from the children’s home still fills him with emotion,

When he announced that he was leaving, the children were devastated. On the day of his departure, while he was already on the bus to Athens, he saw that everyone from the children’s home had gathered on the main road in Filippiada, blocking his way.

“I got off the bus and said goodbye to them one by one,” he recalled. “They hugged me and said: ‘Kyrie Nionio, we will not let you go.’”

Nionios (left) as a young man in Corfu where he was born and raised.

Seventy years have passed since that day, yet those bonds have endured. The children who grew up in his teams went on to become scientists, doctors, professionals, and family men, but they did not forget the man who supported and inspired them.

Dr Christos Venetis sums it up in a few words. “Nionios was, for me and for hundreds of children in the Children’s Homes, the mentor of our childhood. The most important message he conveyed to me was that exercise is a precursor to good physical and mental health. I later confirmed this as a cardiologist, and I pass it on to my patients. I continue to pass it on!”

The Venetis brothers conclude their letter quoting a line from Cavafy’s poem Voices, which aptly captures their childhood memories as “sounds from the first poetry of our life.” Today, at 102, Nionios likely cannot imagine how deeply those “sounds” have stayed with the children he helped raise.