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By Tom Stafford, Staff Writer Updated 9:21 AM Monday, March 8, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — If Springfield had a Greek godfather, it was Tom Lagos — the grandfather of the Tom and Jim Lagos who now practice law here.

The godfather figure is “overdramatized in the movies,” and made much darker, Tom Lagos said. But in Greek as well as Italian and other European traditions, the godfather was “a very important unifying factor” in immigrant communities, he said.

Emigrating from the scenic but poverty-plagued village of Yeraki in the south of Greece in the 1880s, their grandfather set up what his namesake grandson calls “the first franchising operation ... a combination of family, religion and making money.”

As godfather to 10-20 young Yerakis, “he would bring his godsons over and set them up in the restaurant business,” Tom Lagos said.

He’d lend them money for “a decent rate of interest, then he’d keep a piece of the action” until the godsons could buy him out, he added.

Through this system, the Greek community was held together by common business interests and the force of its Orthodox religion.

“He made a fortune in this country and was a personal friend of (President Warren G.) Harding’s because he had an operation in Marion at one time, too,” Tom Lagos said. Then came “two critical business mistakes,” he said.

Having made a fortune, “he had an inkling to go back to the old country.

“Dumb,” Tom Lagos said.

There, his grandfather lost his fortune in the hyper-inflation before World War I.

Returning to the United States, he made a second fortune, then returned to Greece again in time to lose much of it in the hyper-inflation before World War II.

Although the Lagoses’ father, Harry, was an American citizen by virtue of being the son of a naturalized American citizen, “he thought like a first-generation immigrant,” Tom Lagos said.

As a result, Harry Lagos wanted his sons to be either doctors or a lawyers — to look after the community’s health, or its business interests.

Immigrants wanted lawyer sons, Tom Lagos said, “so this kind of thing wouldn’t happen to them.”

The thing he’s referring to is his grandfather being called into Springfield Police Court in 1909 as a result of his business dealings — a story central to today’s Looking Back story on Page C1.

Contact this reporter  at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.

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