(gentle music) - America has long been a beacon of hope for immigrants seeking a better life.

Arriving in America as a teenager, and now one of Sacramento's most influential real estate developers and philanthropists, Angelo Tsakopoulos joins us with the story of his American dream.

Angelo, as you look back over the 88 years that you've had in this life, what do you see as the most significant event that shaped you into the man that you are today?

- Quite a question.

Thank you.

First of course was I was lucky to survive the Second World War as a kid.

When the war started, I was four, when the Germans, the occupation, they left Greece, I was eight.

So I remember a lot about it.

And it was not pretty.

A lot of people didn't do well.

A lot of people died from starvation.

Then the great thing that happened to me was to come to America where I had uncles here and my father had two brothers.

- What year was that, by the way?

- I came here in 1951, August 4th, 1951 on my 14th birthday.

- Wow.

Okay.

So tell us, so you come to America at 14, that's quite a journey for a 14-year-old.

Take us back there and tell us what was going through your mind and what you were experiencing.

- It was not difficult at all.

During the war, my parents and other adults would get together and talk, and there wasn't much to talk about except quite often to talk about America and how wonderful it was because my dad had two brothers here and my mother had two brothers here, and they would write back how America was.

And so I had heard a lot of great stories that if you worked, you could not go hungry.

And at a time when people are starving, that is quite a revelation.

- So you come to America, you're 14 years old.

You're in what city?

- Chicago.

- Chicago.

And in this new land so far away from Greece, where you experienced and witnessed some of the worst of World War II, when you got to America and you're walking the streets and just sort of taking it all in, what did that feel like?

- It was like going to heaven without dying.

It was heaven.

It was everything we had heard about.

I came to Chicago at my uncle's home.

He had four daughters and they were so good to me.

They treated me like their brother.

I went to school there one year, started grammar school, trying to learn the language, and I came in August, school had not started then for a month.

So my uncle would take me with him to his business and to talk to me and to show me what Chicago, et cetera.

I kept asking him, "Can I get a job?

Can I do something?"

And kept bugging him.

So he got me a job in a shoe shine shop.

- You shined shoes?

- I shined shoes, and I shined shoes from the end of August until June of the next year.

But by Christmas, I had saved $360.

- [Scott] That's a lot of money back then.

- A lot of money that we sent home.

- So this whole thread of being an entrepreneur, being a business person, it stretches all the way back.

I'm curious, what is it that sort of started that drive for you in terms of, you know, you went from shining shoes to having a huge imprint on this region with regards to real estate development.

What is it that has driven you all these years toward that stretching all the way back to that first experience?

- A lot of help from many wonderful friends here in America.

I know, if you ask, people will help you, if you ask for help properly.

Many people want to be helpful, and I've had the best help all along my life.

- Do you ever feel like maybe we as human beings just don't understand how to do that right?

Because I've heard you speak before and you've referenced if you ask for help and ask for the right way, you have a faith that people, even people who are strangers will step up and help and assist you.

And so in this day and age, some people might consider that a bit cynically and say that's not true or anything like that, but it's worked for you.

What do you think that people need to understand more about your approach to asking for help and getting people involved?

- The work that you do, if you do it diligently, people recognize it, and they want to help.

My uncles helped me, and the one in Campo, California, after one year in Chicago, I came to California in Campo.

We had a small vineyard.

He taught me how to run a vineyard from pruning it about starting this time of the year when the leaves fall to pruning it and then working the soil, disking it, and then sulfur, putting sulfur, and also irrigating, and then thinning the grapes.

In Lodi, we had tokay grapes that were.

- So this was down in Lodi, okay.

- For eating.

And we did that and picking them all along.

People will teach you, they'll help you.

And of course they taught me, but also I did the work.

- So how did you get started in real estate in the first place, who helped you there?

Because I mean, it's a long distance from grapes and growing and your experiences in Chicago to going into real, who helped you?

- I have been the luckiest guy in the world.

I happened to be at the conversation at a girlfriend's home where her cousin was visiting and he had just served four years in the Navy.

He had come back and he was working at that time on the major real estate companies, Arts and Cook.

He built many parts of Sacramento.

And during the conversation, I mentioned that they were recruiting engineers at Sacramento State and they were offering them $550 a month to start with.

Again, at that time, that was a lot of money.

But the friend said, "Well, that's a lot of money, but I had a great month last month."

I said, "Well, what did you do, what happened?"

He says, "Well I'm in real estate and I made $2,500," which was an enormous amount of money.

Five times the beginning salary of engineer.

And I said, "Well what do you do?

What do you mean you're in real estate?

And he explained that he lifts properties and sells them, and he gets part of the commission, and said, "Wow, do they have openings?

Can I get a part-time job on that?"

And he said, "Not my company, we don't hire part-time, but there's people that would hire you."

And that's how I got started.

- So a lot of us aspire to be entrepreneurs and to make our own way in creating our own businesses and our own legacies for our children.

What for you has been the one or two things that are most important that you have to do in order to become successful in whatever it is that you choose?

- Well, first is to listen to advice from good people, teachers and other people.

And to think logically how things happen.

In real estate, of course, is where growth will take place or how you can serve the people better.

And if you can have solutions for their problems, that'll benefit you a lot.

- I've heard you say in the past that you've always had the gift of being able to see where development is going.

As you look at this region and you've played a role in so many parts of its development, what part of the development of this region that you've been involved in are you most proud of?

- Okay, let me go back to how I started studying and viewing how things happen.

One of the people, when I was in college at Sacramento State, I worked as a waiter at the very fine restaurant, the Del Prada Restaurant, where we wore- - I remember that, I remember that place.

- Yeah, very good food.

Wore bow ties and tuxedos, et cetera.

And different people would come in.

And one of the people I met was Vince Farino, his name, he was the head of a branch of Bank of America.

And after I got my license and he heard I had my real estate license, he started telling me that San Jose was just ahead of Sacramento.

Whatever happens in San Jose usually happens in Sacramento between six and a year and a half or two later.

So that made an impression.

So I took maps of San Jose and looked at them to see how the growth was taking place different years and where growth was going.

- And you used that and applied that to Sacramento though?

- [Angelo] Yes.

- So again, when you look at, you've touched so many parts of this region.

But when you think about, what's your favorite part to go visit and drive through or just take a look at every once in a while, what is it?

- Laguna in Laguna West.

It is Laguna West, as a matter of fact, is studied by universities.

UC Davis has studied it how it was built.

And a lot of the attributes, streets with shade, a lot of trees, sidewalk so people can walk, but split sidewalks and porches, every home is required to have a porch to have neighbors get to know each other.

- It's a very walkable community.

And I know that it and another place called Seaside down in Florida I believe were studied more than many other developments in the United States, particularly over the past 20, 30 years.

And Laguna West also shares that area with the Apple plant, which is another proud part of the region.

I'm curious though, beyond your achievements in real estate development, you have really made your mark in philanthropy, and you mentioned on a regular basis the importance of education and your involvement in education.

What is it about education as opposed to all the other things you could be involved with that's made it such a passion for you?

- Well, it changed my life, first and foremost.

I wanna mention on Laguna West, the idea was born in discussions and Phil Angelides with the architects worked it a lot.

He deserves a lot of the credit for it.

- And the other- - On education, what is it that has made it such a passion for you?

- I was fortunate to meet a person by the name of William S. Fitzer and his wife, Mary Burnice Fitzer, who had sometime way later, he became Pop Fitzer and Mrs. Fitzer, Mom Fitzer.

They were neighbors of my uncles and I was friends with their kids.

And during the time I was in high school, Lodi High.

And my senior year, I asked my uncle if I can go live in downtown Lodi where my friends were living.

And he said, "You're old enough, yeah, you can do that."

And I moved to a hotel by the name the Tokay Hotel, which was Skid Row Lodi.

And I came back to the neighborhood where the Fitzers lived with her children to be with the kids.

Tim Fitzer, Leslie Fitzer, now Leslie Kemp.

They had another girl there, relative living, Jackie.

And Mrs. Fitzer asked me, "Why we haven't seen you?"

And I said, "Well I moved to Lodi."

He says, "Oh, you did?

We're in Lodi."

I said, "I moved to the Tokay Hotel," 50 cents a night, I shared a room with another guy.

We paid a dollar, $30 a month.

Of course at that time, the wages for farm work were 90 cents an hour.

So it was what equivalent to 15, $20 today's money.

And she said, "You what?

A young person like that being a high school live in this place that's not for young people."

And said, "Well, it's okay."

She came back later and she said, "You're staying here tonight.

You're not going back."

And got me to move in with them.

- That was very nice.

- Very, very nice.

And there, Mr. Fitzer spent time talking to me about education.

And the way he described it is, pretend that you live in a huge depression, a big hole as big as Lodi and Stockton combined, that was my world at that time.

But also imagine that you're walking out this depression and as you walk out, you get to meet cities that have existed for thousands of years.

And you can go back at the time when they were being built and you get to meet the generals, the kings, the architects, and you can have dinner with them.

He says the only way you can do that is if you go to college and read the great books.

- And you love these great books.

You talk a lot about Aristotle.

You talk about the contributions of ancient Greek society to society today.

And you've made your stamp on so many places, the establishment of the Mind Institute at UC Davis.

Recently you helped fund tuition for the Black Scholars Program with the new president of Sac State, Luke Wood.

And now there's a talk about doing something on aging as well.

But all of these are tied to education.

What is this new initiative on aging?

- Well, before that, let me mention that in college, I took a course in philosophy.

And the first year of college, I went to the University of Illinois.

And listening to the advice of Mr. Fitzer, I took a class in international literature where we read about what the Russian authors had written, some great books, the French authors, the English author, and the Americans.

And that changed my life.

And later on, I got hold of some books about classical Greece and a great philosopher by the name of Isocrates, not Socrates, but Isocrates, who lived about 250 years after Socrates.

And what he said is that what separates the Helenes from the barbarians is education, edea.

It's the education.

So education makes all the difference in the world.

And I believe we should open the door to every child that wants to go to college.

And it's gonna be amazing how many people, how many of those kids that otherwise would not go on to college will go and make contributions to society.

- With all that being said and all that you've done, not only from a business perspective in building this region, but also philanthropically with all of those institutions that you've touched or you've built.

You also even have children who have moved on to being the Lieutenant Governor of California.

In just a few words, what would you like your legacy to be remembered as?

- As practicing the Athenian...

The way of life where when the young people turned 18, boys and girls would take a oath to the name of Athena and Zeus and all the other Gods, that they would attempt to leave their city better than they found it.

And for me, America has given me so much.

Education, other, people like the Fitzers, and other peoples like Todd Crofoot.

I don't know if you remember- - I remember that name.

- He was very instrumental in my life in real estate.

He spent an hour on a Saturday to guide me on how to work on real estate.

Many people have helped me.

And later on when Mr. Fitzer had cancer and we brought him into my home with nurses to take care of him, he became mobile.

I asked him, "What else, what can I do for you?"

And his word back was, "I want you to do for others what I did for you."

- And I think we're going to leave it there.

Angelo, thank you so much for spending time and sharing your story with us.

- It's a pleasure indeed.

And also, I brought you a document that has your son's name, with Dr. Lewis Vismara, who actually started the idea of the Center for the Study of Aging that you asked me a little bit ago to talk about.

- That's wonderful.

Thank you so much, Angelo, and we look forward to seeing what's next with you.

- It's a privilege.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

And it's an honor to be with you, and I thank you for all you do for our society.

And of course, Channel 6 is awesome educator.

- All right.

And we'll leave it there.

Thanks to our guest and thanks to you for watching "Studio Sacramento."

I'm Scott Syphax, see you next time right here on KVIE.

(gentle music) All episodes of "Studio Sacramento" along with other KVIE programs are available to watch online at kvie.org/video.