George Karpathian
March 29, 1947 ~ October 30, 2025
Resided in:
West End, NC
George Karpathian, 78, passed away on Thursday, October 30, 2025, at the FirstHealth Hospice House in West End.
He was born on March 29, 1947, in Athens, Greece, to the late Anna Papathomas.
After his service as a diver in the Greek Navy Seals, George worked all over the world as a commercial diver and mechanic, including with U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He loved his homeland of Greece and his adopted country, the USA. He was devoted to his family and enjoyed the company of his many friends, especially when he could share his famous home-made yogurt and tzatziki. He also loved animals and had many pets over the years.
George is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Bettina; his two children, John Karpathian and partner, Heather Hastings, of Raleigh and Elizabeth Karpathian of the United Kingdom; and his cousin Elisabeth Paramythiotou of Athens, Greece.
No memorial service scheduled at this time. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to: https://www.firsthealth.org/foundation-of-firsthealth/make-a-donation/ or to CorfuDonkeyRescue – Home.
Online condolences can be made at: PinesFunerals.com.
Powell Funeral Home is serving the Karpathian family.
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He was the only male and the younger member in my mother’ s family….since my grand father had died before my birth and I had never met him. George was 14 years older than me. When I was a little girl he used to lift me and hold me upside down and…. I was afraid of him!!! He was a special person. As my mother had told me, he learned English all by himself. At that time after World war II and a horrible civil war in Greece, most families did not have the means to help the children study foreign languages…so my special cousin found a small dictionary , started studying it by himself and he also started practicing with every tourist he could find! Such a bold young man! Later he started traveling…after he came back from Australia, he brought me my first watch, a small charming watch……years later his gift from Emirates was a SEIKO , a precious gift at the time….Furthermore, what I cannot forget was that he introduced me to pop music, by his small disks of 45 records he had brought at home…..it was the first time I ever heard such songs…..When he went to the army I was quite proud of him since he served in Special Forces and he also had a talent in drawing, he had drawn several walls in the army camp!!!! He loved his country and was proud of the story and the glory of Greece but he never tried to settle there. He preferred to work all over the world and returned to Greece once a year….After he was married to Bettina he settled in the USA. After I graduated from medical school , they hosted Anna and me in New Orleans, where we had a wonderful time……During the last years he managed to have a nice house near the sea in Greece and I could visit them there several times. They also visited us to our country house before and after my husbands’death…. I hope my family and I could give him moments of happiness and joy and family love…. I can fully understand the void left from his death and how Bettina feels since I have recently been there…..I wish to his family to live long and remember him, because people “leave” but love is the connecting link between the live and the dead.