ANGELA "TOOLIE" ZONDOS Angela Toolie Zondos was born in 1932 grew up in the 1930s and early 1940s as a tomboy in Ambridge, PA. The youngest of three daughters of a Greek immigrant couple, Nick Zondos and Mary Mamos, she had free rein of the place, especially during the long, idyllic summers, leaving home with her friends in the early morning and not returning until sundown. Bold and good-looking, adventure came naturally to her, wandering from the high hills to the train tracks down by the river. She maintained that free-spirited lifestyle her entire life. Never married, and cherishing her independence, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, she took summer-long vacations with her fellow teacher girlfriends, for example to L.A., where they stayed with Greek friends, worked in a department store, and saw Nat King Cole perform live in an intimate setting, or to Hawaii, where they worked in a shoe store to pay their rent. And all before the Women's Lib movement. She often said, Better no marriage than a bad marriage. She loved life and people, and they loved her back. An avid amateur gymnast growing up, she obtained her B.S. degree in health and physical education from Slippery Rock Univ. in 1955. She taught at the elementary through high school level from 1955 to 1966, whereupon she began at the California University of Pennsylvania's Health and Physical Education Dept. She went on to get her Masters and Doctoral degrees in Special Education, respectively, from Michigan State Univ. in 1967 and New York Univ. in 1991. As a Special Ed professor at Cal U., she organized many Special Olympics events in skiing, golf, and basketball, both because she loved working with the children herself, and because it provided a training ground for her students. As a long-time board member of the Western Center in Canonsburg, she was able also to offer her students hands-on training there. Favorite activities included skiing, golf, tennis, Greek dancing, and playing pinochle with family. In her later years, after a New York cousin bought a one-bedroom beach condo in North Topsail Island, NC, she also bought a condo there. She liked it there so much that she bought a three-bedroom one nearby and moved there after retirement, spending most of the year there. For several decades thereafter, she enjoyed having her multitude of friends and family drive down from Pittsburgh and other parts north to spend a week with her at the beach. She often attended Greek Orthodox church services an hour's drive away, in Wilmington, NC. Her heart (and those of her immediate family) stopped the evening of Sept. 4, 2019, precipitated initially by a fall and broken hip in June, and then complications from pneumonia. Preceded in death by her mother (1958); father (1989); and oldest sister, Elizabeth Betty Kyriazi (2017); she is survived by her older sister, Sonia; brother-in-law, Ted Kyriazi; nephews, Nick and Harold Kyriazi; and many cousins in NYC and more distant relatives in Greece. From the time of Ted and Betty's marriage (1951) onward, the Kyriazi and Zondos families always spent holidays together, and their lives were forever deeply entwined. A viewing will be held at the KASPER-HAHN FUNERAL HOME at 547 8th St. in Ambridge, from 2-8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, and a funeral service at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Ambridge (2930 Beaver Rd.) at 11 a.m. Monday (viewing at 10), followed by burial at the local cemetery, and then a Makaria meal at Franzee's Banquet Hall at 1300 Merchant St., Ambridge. Send condolences post-gazette.com/gb
