O'Leary, Helen "Eleni" (Papoulias) D.M.D. of Weston, November 25, 2016. Beloved wife of Thomas B. O'Leary Jr. D.M.D. leaves daughters Kathy M. “Cutty” O’Leary of Rockport, MA, Nansi O. and her husband Colin Widen of Weston, MA. Grandmother of Alexander, William, Nicholas and Michaela Widen. Sisters Areti Kokkidis of Athens, Greece, the late “Toulie” Samellas, and the late Litsa Papoulias. Aunt of John, Demetrios, Mara Samellas and Alexandros and Eleni Kokkidis. And loving grand nieces and nephews.
Dr. Helen “Eleni” was born in Newburyport MA. in 1924, one of four daughters of Demetrios and Maria Salavrakos {Salas} Papoulias. At a young age she re-moved to Athens Greece where she spent her formative years. During the Second World War her family experienced and survived the hardships of the Nazi occupation of four years and of the Civil War that followed in 1944.
After graduating from Athens University in 1946, she returned to enroll at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, graduating from Tufts University with a D.M.D, one of two women in the class of 1950. Three years after graduation Helen accepted a job at the Veterans Administration Dental Clinic in Boston, MA. After a few years of practice at the V.A. she was denied a pregnancy leave for her second child and was told that her position was being filled by a male dentist. She joined her husband Thomas O’Leary Jr., her classmate at Tufts, in the practice of dentistry. Some patients had to be reassured that she was not the hygienist or the dental assistant, she was a dentist who graduated in the same class with her husband, would be addressed as Dr. O’Leary. Seeking equal recognition with their male colleagues and needing the power of representation, in 1957, she and twelve women founded the Women’s Dental Society, remaining members of the Massachusetts Dental Society. Helen and Tom shared a dental practice in West Roxbury for more than 40 years and was a resident of Weston, Ma. for 56 years. She was a member of the Community League of Weston and a founding member of the Weston Historical Society.
She was a member of the parish of Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Weston. In 1993 Helen with her sister Demetra “Toulie” Samellas made a contribution to the James Salas Memorial Scholarship of the Saint Demetrios Church in memory of their mother Maria. She was a member of The Hellenic Women’s Club Inc. EOK a women’s philanthropic organization. In 2001 she endowed The Hellenic Women’s Club Demetra Fund for Breast Cancer Research in honor of her sister Demetra Papoulias Samellas who was a member and past president of The Hellenic Women’s Club. During the last years of her life being confined mostly at home she did extensive research on both her husband’s side of the family and her own family in Greece and continued to contact her grandchildren and friends via email and phone calls.
There will be a Funeral Service at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 57 Brown St. Weston, Wed. Nov 30th at 10 AM. Relatives and friends kindly invited. Interment at Linwood Cemetery in Weston. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in Eleni’s memory to the Hellenic Women’s Club EOK Demetria Fund for Breast Cancer Research.
http://www.hellenicwomensclub.org/eok-demetra-fund.php
For a full obituary and her life’s journey see drhelenpoleary.com.