Kimon Stephen Zachos died of a heart attack on December 31, 2014 at the age of 84.
He leaves behind him Anne, his wife of 55 years; his daughters Ellen, Elizabeth and Sarah; five grandsons, Jacob, William, Solon, Nicholas and Nathan; and his brother, James. His sister Victoria died in 2010.
Kimon was born in Concord on November 20, 1930 to Stephen Zachos and Sophia Bacogiannis Zachos, both immigrants from Greece. He spent his childhood in Bennington and returned to Concord for high school.
He was a New Hampshire man through and through, making his home in Manchester after college at Wesleyan University (CT), a Root-Tilden Scholarship to New York University Law School and service in the U.S. Army.
Kim’s passions were his family, travel, art, politics, education, his law practice and philanthropy. At the time of his death, he was the senior shareholder at Sheehan, Phinney Bass & Green, the firm at which he spent his entire professional life. His loyalty to SPhBG was unswerving and he had no plan to retire. His work was significant to the community and essential to him.
Kim served in the first group of White House Fellows, working closely with Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach in Washington, DC in 1965 and 1966. He traveled with Katzenbach to Selma, Alabama in support of voter registration rights in 1965 and never stopped working for what was fair and what was right.
He was elected to the NH House of Representatives from 1969 to 1974, serving as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Majority Leader, and Deputy Speaker of the House. He cared deeply about bipartisanship and compromise; if an issue was important to him, party affiliation was irrelevant.
Kim gave unremittingly of his time and commitment to many causes he believed in. He strongly believed that everyone should give all they could to their community. He was a Trustee and longtime President of the Board of the Currier Gallery of Art, an institution he loved deeply. He was Trustee of Southern New Hampshire University, proudly helping to chaperone its growth from small community college to national university.
He was a former Chairman of the New Hampshire Charitable Fund, a former Director of Havenwood Retirement Community, a Trustee of St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral and former President of the Manchester YMCA. He served as Director of Hitchiner Manufacturing, New England Telephone Company, Merchants Bank, First NH Bank, the Bank of Ireland and Citizens Bank.
His list of awards is too long to publish here. They include Lawyer of the Year, Citizen of the Year, Distinguished Citizen Award, Business Leader of the Year, Leadership Award for Business in the Arts, Lifetime Achievement Award by the Business and Industry Association, the Good Samaritan Award for public service in 2014 and a Granite State Legacy Award. He was named one of the Best Lawyers in America for trusts and estates by Woodward White and a New England Super Lawyer.
The funeral was held on Friday, January 9, 2015 at St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover St., Manchester. Graveside committal prayers followed at Blossom Hill Cemetery, 207 North State St., Concord.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Kimon S. Zachos Acquisition Fund at the Currier Gallery of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester, NH 03104.