Remembering Chris Demakes
Long-time Alumni Director Left A Lasting Legacy At His Beloved UC
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Christos P. Demakes | Rarely does one person have a profound, positive, personal and permanent impact on so many others, but then people like Chris Demakes rarely come along.
Christos P. Demakes, A&S ’62, JD ’65, died on Wednesday, March 19, following a lengthy illness that had precipitated his retirement in 1999 after 23 years as Executive Director of the UC Alumni Association. He was 67.
His passing is sparking a flood of memories throughout the University of Cincinnati community and, in the process, helping to bring Bearcats closer together — which is exactly how Chris would have wanted it.
His legacy at UC is easily understood in hearing friends and colleagues recall his dedication to his work, his easy manner, genuine character, and enduring love for UC and all his fellow Bearcats.
For nearly a quarter century as its leader (and many more years both before and after as its devoted champion), Chris put a warm, helpful, smiling face on the organization that serves and represents all UC alumni, and helped to create a sense of family that strengthens the bonds between an individual and his or her alma mater.
Fostering A ‘Family Culture’
“While the University of Cincinnati is a large, diverse, complex institution charged with an educational and research mission, what makes it truly special and vibrant are the people and the relationships that enrich and sustain it,” says Myron L. Hughes, who became the UC Alumni Association’s executive director in February.
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Chris Demakes and UC President, Nancy Zimpher | “In our work, we talk about the overriding need to keep fostering this community of engagement with each other and our alma mater,” Hughes says. “Chris Demakes embodied and instilled this family culture within our alumni and students, and he continues to inspire us so that we may better serve our constituents and our university.”
No one at UC worked with Demakes more closely, or saw him define this Bearcat culture on a daily basis over many years, than Darlene Carter, the UC Alumni Association’s long-time assistant to the executive director.
“Chris was a joy to work with, and looking back now, it is so clear that he was teaching all of us each day how to treat others,” Carter says. “He loved UC, he loved all Bearcats, and it showed in the way he respected and worked with people.
“It was all about doing what was right for our university and members of the UC community. And to Chris, you were his friend no matter whether you’d known him well for many years, or if you only just met him. He had — and freely shared — that remarkable gift, and UC is a better place for it.” Click here for more personal remembrances of Chris.
Click here to read UC Magazine's obituary.
Honoring Chris
Upon Demakes’s retirement and in recognition of this sense of a shared “lifelong Bearcat family,” the UC Alumni Association and many of his UC friends and colleagues honored him by creating the Christos P. Demakes Legacy Scholarship Fund, which bestows scholarship assistance on lineal descendants of UC alumni who have demonstrated outstanding academic and leadership qualities as they approached their college years.
Since its inception in 2000, more than 250 Demakes Legacy Scholars have received more than $260,000 in scholarship assistance to help them follow their parents and/or grandparents to UC — a great way to “keep UC in the family.”
The Demakes family has asked that memorials to honor Chris Demakes should be in the form of a gift to the Demakes Legacy Scholarship Fund.
Gifts may be made online, by calling 513-556-6781 or toll-free at 888-556-8889, or mailed to The University of Cincinnati Foundation, Demakes Legacy Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 19970, Cincinnati, Ohio 45219-0970.
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