Nikolaos Mirkopoulos Obituary

Mirkopoulos, Nikolaos "Nick" (January 13, 1942 - December 7, 2013). It is with great sadness that our family says farewell to our patriarch, Nick. Beloved eldest brother of Larry, Nikiforos, Achilleas and Steve; much-admired brother-in-law of Mary, Kathy and Carole; cherished uncle of Jim, Stasy, Michael, Christina, George, Chrisoula, Siluck, Jacqueline and the late Ted Mirkopoulos; and revered great-uncle of Alex, Patricia, Dean, Rhonda and Nick Pissios of Chicago. Nick bravely ventured over to Canada from Greece in 1968 seeking adventure and opportunity, and encouraged his brothers Larry and Steve to join him soon thereafter. He led the family business, Torontario Contractors, to become a very successful institutional contractor that developed and upgraded many landmark buildings in the Toronto area and elsewhere. Nick's love of heritage structures even stretched up to Orillia, Ontario, where he repurposed the old Tudhope Carriage Factory for the Provincial Police and eventually Orillia City Hall, but most prevalent was Nick's masterful expertise at the adaptive reuse of existing structures as film studios. In 1988 Nick spearheaded the development of the first large-scale film production studio facility in Canada, under the banner of Cinespace. Nick developed three further studio complexes in Toronto including Marine Terminal 28, which hosted the only film ever shot in Canada to win a Best Picture Oscar, "Chicago". Perhaps prophetically, the Windy City itself was the next beneficiary of Nick's tireless entrepreneurial drive, as he orchestrated the redevelopment of a 50-acre industrial site in Chicago into a bustling film production campus and revitalized the City's film and television production industry. Nick's legendary generosity and philanthropy touched thousands across the nations that he travelled. He spent personal time and resources engaging and supporting the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, York University's Faculty of Fine Arts, Toronto's Hellenic Community, Toronto's East General Hospital, DePaul University's School of Cinema, Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago's Mount Sinai Medical Center, Chicago's Saving Our Sons Ministries, the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, and the Ark of the World children's charity of Greece, among many others. Over the last several months, Nick courageously battled a difficult terminal illness, and on November 23rd he traveled back to Greece, to be with his family in his home and birthplace in Kalohori, Kastoria. Notes can be sent to info@chicagofilmstudios. com or mailed to Mirkopoulos Family, P.O. Box 32, 52050, Kalohori, Kastoria, Greece. Donations in memoriam can be made to charities in either Greece or Chicago, with details available at the main Cinespace office at (773)521-8000.