‘One of the great ones.’ Andreas Giannitsopoulos, Vanderbilt student, dies in collapse
Selfless. Kind. Modest. Those are only a few of the words used to describe Andreas Giannitsopoulos.
The 21-year-old rising senior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville came to South Florida to visit his father’s best friend Manuel LaFont. He was with Lafont in apartment 801 of the Champlain Towers South when it came tumbling down last week.
On Wednesday, police confirmed that Giannitsopoulos’ body had been pulled from the rubble. LaFont’s body was found June 25.
In the eyes of his younger sister, Athanasia, he was a role model.
“Giannitsopoulos was a mentor, friend, and companion,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “Since I was little I have looked up to my brother every day with big eyes, adoring everything he is as a person.”
Britney Dubin, who organized a GoFundMe page to help Giannitsopoulos’ family, said Giannitsopoulos was an “old soul who impacts every heart.”
“To know Andreas is to love Andreas,” she wrote.
Giannitsopoulos, whose family came from Xanthi in northern Greece, according to The Greek Herald, graduated from St. Thomas High School in Houston, where he was on the track and field team.
From the young age of 14, Giannitsopoulos was the “go-to” guy, always offering to help without having to be asked, according to a Facebook post from Justin Storm Vasquez, a former camp counselor at Camp Lonehollow in Texas, which Giannitsopoulos and his sister, Athanasia, attended.
“His mentality of always helping others, being the modest one, and never looking for recognition,” Vasquez wrote. “I mean he was a walking legend around that place.”
In the fall of 2019, he transferred from Baylor University to Vanderbilt, where he studied economics and made the Dean’s List.
“We extend our deepest condolences to Andreas’ family, friends, classmates and faculty as they deal with this unimaginable tragedy,” the university said in a statement. “Our thoughts continue to be with all affected by the disaster as they await news of their loved ones and mourn those lost. We have been closely following the situation in Surfside, Fla., and have reached out to Andreas’ family to offer support.”
Giannitsopoulos was also a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, was involved in the Vanderbilt Hellenic Students’ Association and the Vanderbilt Innovation and Entrepreneurship Society.
To his girlfriend, Vanderbilt student Nancy Matthews, Giannitsopoulos was a force of peace, compassion and a sense of home.
“My love, my life will never be the same without you,” Matthews wrote in an Instagram post, sharing something she wrote about him a few weeks before he died. “You have left a void that no person or thing will ever be able to fill.”
The Vanderbilt student was described as a “man representing Goodness, Discipline, and Knowledge,” according to the GoFundMe page.
Ava Kowalski, who trained with Giannitsopoulos, said in a GoFundMe post that he was “the most kindhearted and motivated person,” she ever met.
“He pushed everyone around him to be the best athlete they could be,” she wrote. “I am so incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to practice and train with him.”
His mother, Tina Giannitsopoulos, told NBC News that her son planned on going into real estate when he graduated.
“My son was the strongest person I know and the best part of my day,” she told the station after learning her son’s body had been found. “We had such plans for his future.”
Another of Giannitsopoulos’ hallmark traits: humility.
“The reason why I write this is because Andreas, even though he would hate the recognition, he deserves it,” wrote Vasquez, his former camp counselor. “He was strong, kind, ambitious, but most of all he was a blessing in my life and so many others no matter how long or short the time was spent with him. The world lost one of the great ones. His name was Andreas Giannitsopoulos.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 4:55 PM.
