Thomas Geovanis Obituary

Thomas Geovanis, 77, teacher, composer



January 15, 2005

BY MONIFA THOMAS, Chicago Sun-Times Staff Reporter



The music never really stopped for Thomas Geovanis, even as it became harder and harder for him to hear it.



Mr. Geovanis started playing violin at 4, taught music for more than 30 years at Truman College and worked on his choral and orchestral compositions almost daily.



Acute hearing loss forced Mr. Geovanis to retire from the City Colleges system in 1999, but his eldest daughter, Christine Geovanis, says music remained "the organizing principle and consuming passion" of his life.



Mr. Geovanis, 77, died Wednesday at Lutheran Home nursing home in Arlington Heights. He had been battling health problems after being hit by a car in 2003.



Born in Chicago to a Greek father and a Polish mother in 1927, Mr. Geovanis dropped out of high school at 17 to follow in his father and grandfather's footsteps as a steel mill worker. He later took GED courses to complete his high school diploma before studying composition at Chicago Musical College. Mr. Geovanis went on to get a master's in music at DePaul in the mid-1960s.



Christine Geovanis said that growing up during the Depression had a lasting influence on her father.



"He strongly identified with the disenfranchised and the dispossessed," she said.



In addition to teaching state prisoners and unemployed steelworkers, Mr. Geovanis was the grievance chairman for the Cook County College Teachers Union, Local 1600.



At Truman College, where he taught music and humanities and conducted the chorus, Mr. Geovanis was a favorite among students.



"They really adored him," she said. "He engaged them as partners in learning and related to them on a human, genuine level."



Mr. Geovanis also impressed the Democratic Party, which nominated him to run for state Senate in 1972, a race he narrowly lost before running twice more.



When he wasn't teaching, Mr. Geovanis was composing. Most of his compositions were destroyed in a 1992 fire that killed two of his neighbors.



Mr. Geovanis is also survived by his other children, Nicholas, Janet, Vivienne and Carla Geovanis.



A funeral service will be at 10 a.m. today at Rago Brothers Funeral Home, 624 N. Western, followed by burial at Evergreen Cemetery.

Dear Vivi and Christine,



To you and your family - my sincere

sympathy at this time of sorrow.



Thank you for getting in touch with

me, though I deeply regret not having had the opportunity to speak

with him about good old times together.



I shall remember Tom as an admirable

human being of convictions who was dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, art and music.



May the thought of his having led the good life be of comfort to you.



Sincerely,



Dieter Kober

Chicago Chamber Orchestra

Janet, Joshua, Isaac, Theo, and the rest of the Geovanis family,



My heartfelt sympathies, thoughts, and prayers are with you all at this difficult time. May you be comforted knowing your father and grandfather is now at peace.



Sincerely,

Mary

To Chris, Dick and your whole family. Our deepest sympathies in this time of grief and sorrow at Thomas' death and great suffering. He lives on in your loving work for peace and justice.

My deepest sympathy to the Geovanis Family



Sister of Manuel Torres