Memoirs of Peter Boudoures Chapter 31 Chris Katon to the Rescue

Chris Katon 1931 AHEPA Photo

I then learned from my very good friend, Chris Katon, manager of the Spreckels-Russell Dairy Company, that the president of his company, Mr. Macbee was a personal friend of George Panario. They visited each other frequently and played golf together. They were very, very close friends. I asked Chris to talk to Mr. Macbee to see whether or not he would try to bring the three of us together for a meeting.

I wanted to try to arrange for a deal with him for us to purchase the building from Capital Corporation. Chris consented, and he was of tremendous help. He arranged to bring Mr. Macbee to the restaurant for lunch. I knew who Mr. Macbee was because, from time to time, he would come to the Maison Paul to eat.

He came in with Chris Katon and we had a meeting. I went into detail and told Mr. Macbee that we did not like the idea of going into bankruptcy, but there was no alternative. We had no choice. I told him that we had no way of raising more money than we had, $22,000, to purchase the building. I didn't exaggerate on anything. I just gave him the complete picture. I wanted him to explain this to Panario. I also wanted him to convey to Panario that, sooner or later, we would move out of the building and they would be stuck with another vacancy. If we did move out, I would make a terrific capital issue out of it and I would let every Greek in California know what the bank had done to us. Also, I wanted to convey to him that the bank would lose a lot more. They would lose the good will of every Greek-American of the Bay Area and throughout California where the bank had branches. I wanted him to know that it would be to their advantage to avoid anything of this nature.

Mr. Macbee congratulated me and thanked me for explaining all these matters to him. He promised to do his utmost to convince Panario to sell us the building. I don't know how long it took, but I do know that he was able to convinced Panario to sell us the building. We were able to buy it for $22,000, the same money that the bank bid for it at the foreclosure sale. It was a terrific success and a burden I was delighted to be rid of. After we bought the building, I received many thanks and congratulations and so did Katon for the effort that we, and a number of other Greeks, put in for our mutual benefit.

(In his "Memoirs of A. Papulias," written in 1960, Angelo Papulias credits the efforts of two men, Peter Boudoures and Chris Katon, for the recovery of the church building from the Bank of America.)

We then, at the suggestion of Father Lokis, started another drive to remodel the building and convert part of it into a school. Unfortunately, from the time that it was converted into a church until we bought it back, I would say that seven or eight years had passed, the church had fallen into disrepair. The original job was poor, either because the people who supervised it didn't know better; or they didn't have enough money to do it right; or the architect or the contractor, whoever did the work, was unscrupulous. The church was really in poor condition, the exterior as well as the interior. Father Lokis was a man of action. He made it his business to get to know most of the Greek businessmen and to get their support. We raised the money to repair the church, add classrooms and remodel the building. The community prospered.

(Plans were made to start a parochial school in the back of the building. Three classrooms were remodeled on the second floor, behind the altar. A basketball court was built in the yard behind the church, with bathrooms outside. Exercise bars were installed on the wall of the adjoining motorcycle building. The plan was to start the school in the September of 1940. But the depression was still in full force and effect at that time and only a few parishioners could afford to pay the tuition needed to put their children in the proposed school. The economy didn't begin to improve in any substantial manner until 1942, after the war began. Because of the war effort it was not possible to start a school.)