In Memory of

Dimitrios C. Rallis

February 4, 2015

Obituary

Dimitrios Constantine Rallis, son of Constantine and Sevasti Rallis, passed away on February 4^th, 2015, following complications related to surgery at the Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey.  He was 75. Dimitrios is survived by his daughter Donna Chermain, son-in-law Wayne, granddaughters Cynthia and Laura, and great grandchildren Micah, Hailey, Lilliana and Liam.

Dimitrios, known to friends as Dimitri or Taki, was born in Greece and moved to London at the age of 6.  His father was a successful businessman whose career in shipping influenced Taki for much of his life.  He attended St. Edward’s School in Oxford before being admitted to King’s College Cambridge, where he first studied modern languages and then economics.  After graduating in 1961 with a M.A. degree, he spent a year studying in Munich, Germany. Returning to London, he worked for a while for I.B.M.  In 1967 he decided to go the University of California, Berkeley to study for a Masters in Business Administration.  Armed with an MBA, he married Anna, and then joined a shipping company based in San Francisco, which he really enjoyed.  A year or two after being transferred to New Orleans -- which he did not enjoy -- Dimitri left the company to join his Godfather’s Hellenic Lines based in New York.

When Hellenic folded some years later following the death of his Godfather, Dimitri joined Moram, a Russian shipping company where he became Vice-President.  However, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, ports on the Eastern sea board refused to handle their cargo, and Moram was forced to close.  Dimitri then found his way to the New York Port Authority where he worked as a shipping analyst until his retirement.

Working in the World Trade Center, Dimitri experienced the 1993 bombing, and had to descend 67 floors in pitch darkness and in dense smoke before emerging, blackened from head to foot, in the street below.  On 9/11, he was spared by good fortune: he overslept and missed his usual train. Upon arriving half an hour later than usual at Hoboken station, he looked across the water and saw his building on fire.  No point going there today he thought - I’m going home!

Dimitri was an original.  He was captain of Fencing at St. Edward’s School.  He spoke fluent Greek, English and Spanish, and had a good command of French and German.  He loved Scrabble. His boundless sense of humor and razor sharp wit was interspersed occasionally with some Mediterranean volatility, which meant he was never boring.  His loyalty to his friends was one of his great qualities, and clearly friendship meant more to him than anything else. When his wife Anna became ill with diabetes, renal failure and finally lung cancer, taking care of her came to dominate his retirement years.  While Dimitri enjoyed living in the U.S., he was often nostalgic for life in England where he still had great friends.  We will all miss him more than words can say.

No public ceremonies were held after his cremation.