On June 27, 2025, Michael (Mike) C Papadopoulos passed peacefully at his residence (in Naperville, Illinois). He survived a near heart attack and cancer treatment in 2017, spending hours these last 8 years fiddling with the things he loved, British car restoration. He died the way he had always wished, in his sleep. Michael was born on March 8, 1940 in a small village during WWII on the Danube River in Braila, Romania which had been occupied by the Nazis and then later the Russians. Michael, his sister Martha, and mother, Loukia Vzoronos, successfully escaped to Greece on their second attempt. They were reunited with his father, a Chief Engineer for the Merchant Marines, after the war. Michael came to the USA in 1961 after completing Nautical Engineering school in 1960 and marrying Katherine (Tina), the sister of his best friend, Emmanuel. He embarked upon a career as a mechanic and became a father of two children, Loukia and Charalambos (Bob Popp). After a divorce, he married Susan (Brown) lovingly increasing the family with her three children. They created a unified, loving, and caring home for the children, Carl, Tara, and Trina, and grandchildren Chantel, Mitchell, and Maggie. With the help of Susan, Mike’s Imported Car Clinic became one of the best foreign car shops in the area, specializing in British cars. Michael became a naturalized citizen of the USA. In later years, he and Susan would vacation in St. Petersburg, yearly, where she resides. Mike’s success is also attributed to his surrogate son, Panos, a welcomed new brother to Michael’s family.

Michael was happiest when concentrating on fixing cars. He was an excited and verbose teacher of all things, bringing everything back to language and the meaning and derivation of words, mostly coming from Greek. He was known to talk to family, customers, or anyone that would listen about cars, philosophy, and other topics. He was a more serious version of Michael Constantine’s character, Mr Portokalos, “Orange, the color, not the fruit” in Greek, in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. He was the last inhabitant to be grandfathered in at Wheatland Industrial Park where he entertained many fellow business owners with his humor and knowledge.

Michael was preceded in death by his son Charalambos “Bobby"/"Bob Pop”. He is survived by Susan (Brown) Papadopoulos, Kent and Loukia (Papadopoulos) Verhage, Ted and Tara (Howell) Dooley, Trina Howell, and Carl Howell and Amy Defalco, Panos and Sonia Bartzis, and grandchildren Chantel, Mitchell, Maggie, Bianca, Lilly, and Kosta.

Michael will be missed dearly for his love and knowledge. He will be remembered in a memorial service at 11:30 am on Saturday, September 13th at St Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church, 133 S Roselle in Palatine. Michael’s body was laid to rest on the body farm at Northern Michigan University’s Forensic Research Outdoor Station (FROST) program: https://nmu.edu/frost/facilit… allowing him to teach, even after death, to those studying Forensic Science.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) https://donate.nami.org/give/…

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