January 20, 2022

AHEPA Management Mourns Passing of Founder

Smyrnis (at right) receives the ANHC Lifetime Achievement Award from then-ANHC President Angelo Kostarides.

AHEPA Affordable Housing Management Company (AMC) deeply mourns the passing of Nick Smyrnis, who was an original founder and former president of the company, announced AMC President and CEO Steve Beck. Smyrnis also was a founder of AMC’s parent company, AHEPA National Housing Corporation (ANHC), and served as ANHC’s first board president.

“Our company is deeply saddened by the passing of Nick Smyrnis,” Beck said. “Nick is rightfully credited as being the father of AHEPA’s Senior Housing program, and we owe Nick a great deal of debt and gratitude as his vision and leadership are the reasons why we are here today. Our deepest sympathies are with the Smyrnis family.”

Smyrnis served as AMC president the time of the company’s founding in 1991 until his retirement in 2008.

Smyrnis also helped to establish AHEPA National Housing Corporation in 1983 to provide affordable apartment communities for low-income seniors administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program. Today, ANHC, through its subsidiaries, is a nationwide provider of 87 affordable apartment communities and four affordable assisted living communities in 19 states, serving 5,500 seniors.

“Nick served as a mentor to those of us involved in the AHEPA National Housing program,” ANHC President Carl Hollister said. “He inspired the AHEPA family to provide more affordable, safe, and dignified housing to seniors through his passion, knowledge, and the outstanding example he set forth for us to follow. His passing leaves a void that will be impossible to fill. We will take what we learned from him, and we will honor his memory by continuing to grow our mission to serve more seniors in need. May his memory be eternal.”

In 2014, ANHC presented Smyrnis with its Lifetime Achievement Award. ANHC also sponsored a service dog for a veteran named, “Nick S.,” after Smyrnis and former ANHC Chairman Emeritus Nick Stratas, who passed away in 2018.

From 1979 to 1981, Smyrnis served two terms as Supreme President of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (Order of AHEPA), a Hellenic heritage fraternal service organization whose chapters are the nonprofit sponsors of the affordable apartment communities.

Smyrnis hailed from Indianapolis. He passed away on January 15, 2022, at the age of 98.