Chrysostomos “Chris” Alahouzos won a resounding victory in the race to become the new mayor of Tarpon Springs, Florida on March 15, 2016, with almost 58% of the vote.
Alahouzos emigrated to the United States from the Greek island, with his family, when he was 14 years old. His father was sponge diver— the profession that brought thousands to the idyllic Florida town over the past century from Greece’s Dodecanese islands— particularly Kalymnos.
He was a technology expert for Verizon and spent decades in public service, including years of cultural volunteer work connecting Tarpon Springs with Kalymnos, and other Greek islands through a sister-city program. He also served as President of the city’s Kalymnian Society and numerous other educational and cultural endeavors.
“My proudest accomplishment to date was my involvement in establishing the Plato Academy,” a highly-regarded charter school in Pinellas County, FL, with campuses in Tarpon Springs as well as Clearwater, Largo, Palm Harbor, Seminole, and St. Petersburg. “We plan to expand to other areas of Florida, too,” he told New York’s National Herald in an August 2014 interview.
Get the book Greeks in Tarpon Springs (Images in America Series)
About Tarpon Springs: 10 Facts