ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: ATHENS, GREECE
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Stavros Niarchos, known as the last of the ``Golden Greeks''' of the shipping world, has died at age 86, Greek radio and television stations reported Wednesday.
The reports, which could not be immediately confirmed, said Niarchos died Monday at a medical facility in Switzerland; the cause of death was not known. A man answering the telephone at Niarchos' villa in St. Moritz, Switzerland, refused comment, and Niarchos' office in London was closed.
Niarchos, once among the richest men in the world, had a passion for business and women that was matched only by the late Aristotle Onassis - one of whose ex-wives became one of Niarchos' six.
Niarchos was born July 3, 1909, in Athens, three months after his parents, naturalized Americans, had returned to their native country after making their fortune with a department store in Buffalo, N.Y.
After earning a law degree from Athens University, Niarchos entered the business world through a chain of flour mills owned by his mother's family. By the time he was 30, he had built up the shipping side of the business, chartering vessels to carry wheat from Argentina.
With the outbreak of World War II, Niarchos had seven tramp steamers, which he chartered to the Allies. With $2 million in his pocket as payment for the loss of six of his ships from the war, Niarchos bought surplus U.S. ``Liberty ships'' and went into the tanker business that earned him his fortune.
Niarchos branched out into real estate and oil refineries, and founded Greece's biggest shipyard. Financial analysts estimated that Niarchos' holdings in the mid-1980s were worth $2.4 billion.
In 1949, the twice-divorced Niarchos married Eugenia Livanos, a member of an old Greek shipping family. They had three sons and a daughter.
In 1965, Niarchos suddenly obtained a Mexican divorce to marry Charlotte Ford, the daughter of automobile magnate Henry Ford II. Six months later, she gave birth to a girl. But within a year, Charlotte divorced Niarchos. He was able to resume his marriage to Eugenia, since the Orthodox Church of Greece never recognized the Mexican divorce.
Eugenia died in 1970 on the family's Aegean island of Spetsopoula near Athens. Bruises were found on her body. Niarchos said they were inflicted in an attempt to revive her after she took an overdose of barbiturates. An Athens coroner ruled that Eugenia died from the drugs.
After Eugenia died in 1970, Niarchos married his deceased wife's sister, Tina, who had previously been married to shipping magnate Onassis. Onassis was already remarried to Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of President John Kennedy.
To many members of the Greek shipping community in Europe, Niarchos' marriage to Tina appeared to be another effort to vie with Onassis.
Earlier, Niarchos had shown his intense desire to vie with Onassis by building the 375-foot luxury yacht Atlantis, 50 feet longer than Onassis' cruiser Christina.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB