29/08/2025
Professor George Kanarakis OAM passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on 26 August 2025. Beloved husband of Marcia, devoted father of daughter Fofi and her partner David, and of son Evan.
George was a highly respected member of Charles Sturt University academic staff, well known in Australia and overseas for his scholarly research and interests in Greek and English languages and linguistics, the literature and history of the Greeks of the diaspora and the Greek press in Australia and New Zealand.
Born in 1936 in Piraeus, Greece, George was the son of Fotini (née Karakatsani) and Evangelos Kanarakis.
George exhibited a thirst for knowledge at an early age which led to a life dedicated to research and in particular the study of linguistics and languages. He studied philology (Greek and English) at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens under a Hellenic State Foundation Scholarship, English (TEFL) with the British Council in London, and Linguistics under a Fulbright Scholarship at Michigan State University and Indiana University, USA. In 1968 he received his MA in Applied Linguistics from Indiana University and in 1974 his PhD (Honors) in Contrastive Linguistics from the Faculty of Philology, University of Athens.
George taught at the University of Athens English Department (1966-1976) including several years as its Coordinator, at Deree-Pierce College (now The American College of Greece), Athens, the University of La Verne, as visiting professor at Bridgewater State College, USA, and elsewhere. Since 1976 he taught at Mitchell Cοllege of Advanced Education, now Charles Sturt University, Australia. He lectured at the Australian College for Seniors, the School for Talented Children and the Charles Darwin University Hellenic Studies summer program.
Of his numerous publications on the Greek language and the Hellenic Diaspora, Greek Voices in Australia: A Tradition of Prose, Poetry and Drama (Australian National University Press, 1987, 1991), In the Wake of Odysseus: Portraits of Greek Settlers in Australia (RMIT University Press, 1997), The Greek Press in the Antipodes: Australia and New Zealand (2000), The Diachronic Contribution of Greek to Other Languages (2014, 2015) and The Legacy of the Greek Language (2017) are highly regarded.
Among other awards, he was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Charles Sturt University (1999), the Medal of the Order of Australia by the Australian Commonwealth (2002), and the Olympiad of Letters Award (Greece, 2004). He was elected to the International Academy of Rome for the Promotion of Culture and honored by Euroclassica and the Academia Homerica (Greece, 2005), by the University of Athens at Delphi (Pythia 2008) “for having upheld the Hellenic values throughout his life and work”, with the Gold Medal of Alexander the Great (2011) by the International Organization for the Promotion of the Arts, with the UNESCO Medal (Piraeus and Islands, 2011), with the International Pan-Arcadian Confederation Medal (Greece, 2014), with the Gregory Xenopoulos Medal (2015) by the Society of Hellenic Writers (Greece), and with the Hypatia Prize (2018) by the Australian-Hellenic organisation AHEPA of New South Wales. In 2019 his lifelong work was acknowledged in a one-day conference as part of the “Athens, World Book Capital” activities (Greece) under the aegis of UNESCO.
George will be greatly missed by family, friends, colleagues and former students in Australia and overseas. He will remain in our hearts forever.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend a Funeral Service for George at 12.00 midday on Friday 5 September 2025 at All Saints Cathedral, 3 Church Street, Bathurst followed by interment in the Maranatha Lawn Cemetery, Bradwardine Road, Bathurst.
