He was a dear friend of my grandparents from long before he was Archbishop. My grandmother used to tell stories about teaching him to cook green beans in her kitchen. I remember the first time I met him. I was about 11 or 12 and he came to see my grandfather who was dying at the time. As I kid I felt almost like I was meeting God! :) We practiced what to do when he arrived for a week. My two youngest sisters were very little at the time. The Archbishop was sitting on a couch in my grandparent's living room and said "As Christ said, suffer the little children to come unto me!" With that he opened his arms and my two little sisters leapt into them and began to hug and kiss him. If I live to be 100, I'll never forget the serene smile on his face when they did that.
God Bless him! May his memory be eternal!
He was a visionary, like JPII, and a true man of God.
Eternal rest to this man, who became the face of the Greek Orthodox to me as I was growing up. Hard to imagine him not with us.
+MEMORY ETERNAL+
I think, however, that even his most ardent detractors will, in the long run, have to come to admit that in Abp. Iakovos, God provided some things to the Orthodox Church here in America that were very much needed at the moment in time when he was most influential on the American Orthodox scene.
I have never heard anything other than him being a loving and princely man in his personal behavior. Your family story does not surprise me in the least. He leaves big shoes to fill.
Memory eternal!