Michael A Mardikes

Michael Mardikes died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 94 on Wednesday, December 29, 2021, after leading an extraordinary life that spanned the creative arts, industrial management, university administration, and political engagement. Mike, as his family and friends called him, was born in Coffeyville, Kansas on March 11, 1927, to Anastasios Mardikes and Georgia Konomos Mardikes, Greek immigrants who started the first local dry-cleaning business. At an early age, he was an avid reader and made friends with the librarians at the Coffeyville public library, who steered him into the adult section, where he attempted to read all the books he could get his hands on. He proved to be a precocious student, who graduated early from high school, enrolling at the age of 16 at the University of Kansas, where he majored in Chemistry. As soon as he turned 18 and became eligible, Mike left college and enlisted in the armed forces as World War II drew to a close in 1945. For the next two years he served as the Chief Clerk, G-4 Staff at General Mark Clark’s Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Once he returned state-side, Mike pursued his new passion for photography at the U.S. Army Signal Corps School in New Jersey, and after he left the army in 1950, at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he met a fellow student, Myrt Sanger. The young couple married in June 1951 and settled in Kansas City, where they had three children - Tom, Cathy, and George, over the next five years.

The decade of the 1950s proved to be an exceptionally productive one for Mike in a variety of arenas. His commercial photographic endeavors flourished in these years, first in the advertising department at Macy’s in downtown Kansas City and then as a free-lancer whose photos began to receive national and international recognition. In the year 1955, alone, Mike won second prize in a national contest held by Popular Photography magazine and his photos were on display in New York and published in the December issue of the magazine. More importantly, in October of that year he won a coveted Honorable Mention in the international competition of the world’s top photographers sponsored by Life Magazine-Photographic Society of America’s Photographic Essay Contest. In late 1955, Mike’s teacher at the Art Institute, Gene Pyle introduced him to the famous artist, Thomas Hart Benton. A close friendship developed between the two men that enabled Mike to photograph the artist as he worked on the River Club mural in his home studio. Enlarged prints of these photos are currently on display at the Kansas City Public Library (For more information please visit: https://kclibrary.org/blog/artist-home-america-michael-mardikes%E2%80%99-photographs-thomas-hart-benton). At the same time, however, Benton also introduced him to the leading photographic journalist of the era, Alfred Eisenstaedt, who befriended Mike, but also warned him that the life of a professional photographer would not be conducive to a family life with Myrt and their three children. As a result, Mike’s involvement in the world of photography after 1956 became largely that of a teacher and mentor for promising young people in the field, including his nephew Nick Vedros and family friend Dan White, who went on to successful careers as professional photographers.

To better support his new family, Mike also pursued a second career in management at the Ford Motor Company. Between 1952 and 1964, he rose steadily in the ranks of the company, from a shift manager of quality control to Senior Industrial Engineer, General Foreman of Production, and finally to Quality Control Supervisor at the Claycomo plant. During the same years, Mike became increasingly involved in local politics, serving as an elected City Councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem in Gladstone, Missouri in 1961. Despite all these commitments, he also found time to pursue and complete a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1964. That year the Ford corporate leadership asked Mike to become a manager at its new plant in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, so he decided not only to leave the company, but to make a dramatic break with his family’s settled life in the Kansas City area.

In the summer of 1964, Mike and Myrt sold their home in Gladstone and moved with their family to Corinth, Greece, where they would live for the next year and half, connecting with their Greek relatives, while Mike spent time writing in a monastery. In addition to home-schooling the kids and becoming an expert in Greek cuisine, Myrt taught the nuns iconography and, in the process, became an officially recognized iconographer of the Greek Orthodox Church. In retrospect, both she and her kids agree that it was an extraordinary experience for all.

Upon the family’s return to the States in 1966, Mike embarked on yet another new career path in higher education administration at his alma mater, UMKC. Here his roles and responsibilities steadily expanded, testifying once again to his many talents, skills, and interests. Mike initially directed a project for the university that provided community organizing training in the Midwest. Upon completion of this project, he became the Associate Dean of the School of Continuing Education. At the same time, he became university liaison for the Carolyn Benton Cockefair Chair in Continuing Education, a program that enabled him to bring such famous public intellectuals and literary luminaries as Tom Wolf, Gore Vidal, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, and Susan Sontag to speak on campus. He was also appointed Assistant Dean for the Conservatory of Music, with the task of integrating the Kansas City Conservatory of Music into the UMKC system. Mike finally assumed the role of Director of Public Affairs, where he served as the UMKC representative on the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and collaborated with the Kansas City business community on the expansion of the university with the renovation of Swinney Recreation Center (1988), Grant Hall (1989), and the Health Sciences Building (2002). This office dovetailed nicely with his activities as a mentor, consultant, pollster, and campaign manager for politicians and electoral candidates for office on to local government, state government, and the US Congress. The contacts he made in these roles helped him win governmental support for the university building initiatives.

While Mike officially retired in 1992, the university retained him as an independent contractor, and he maintained his office and duties until August 2002. In the years that followed, he lost none of his sense of humor, curiosity, passion for learning or his encyclopedic knowledge of seemingly everything, even in the last week of his life, when he flew a drone with his grandson. He and Myrt also used this time to travel extensively with the younger generations, both in the United States and abroad, where they returned to their old haunts in Greece and visited such international destinations as Istanbul, St. Petersburg, London, the south of France, Florence, Venice, and many of the capitals in Eastern Europe.

Mike is survived by his wife Myrt, his children Tom (Anne Beckett), Catherine (Tony Cardoza), and George (Tara), his grandchildren Tassie (Patrick) Ryland, Kira Mardikes, Michael Cardoza, Rebecca and Michael Mardikes, his two great grandchildren, as well as his nephews George (Crystal) and Nick (Patty) Vedros, his grandniece Meryl Vedros, and grandnephews Nicholas and Paul Vedros. He was predeceased by his parents and his sister, Sophia Myers. Mike was a longtime member of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

The family has scheduled a memorial service for Mike on Monday, April 25th, 2022 at the Kansas City Public Library. For details, please contact Catherine Mardikes at [email protected].

The family has requested that remembrances be made in the form of contributions to the University of Missouri-Kansas City Library: Options for giving online or by mail can be found at https://library.umkc.edu/giving