Maryann Mihalopoulos was a driving force in fundraising

Friday afternoon, officials of Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep cut the ribbon on the school’s new $14.5 million Innovation Center, which includes a gymnasium, arts classrooms, a dining facility, and counseling and administrative offices.

It completes the school’s current construction plan and is the crown jewel of its Pleasant Grove campus, according to Richard Joyner, chair of the school’s board.

But it was also a bittersweet moment for a school known for its work-study programs for underserved students.

Maryann Sarris Mihalopoulos, a driving force in raising funds for the major addition, wasn’t there. The well-known Dallas attorney and philanthropist had died less than a week earlier from complications following sudden cardiac arrest in September.

“Maryann gave us huge momentum,” said Joyner, president of Tolleson Wealth Management. “She brought in so many new people into the Cristo Rey community, it would have been really hard for us to finish that building without her.

“It’s hard for me to describe how impactful she was to the entire school community.”

Joyner recently appointed Mihalopoulos to chair the search committee for a new Cristo Rey president.

“She had huge energy,” he said. “Always positive and optimistic. Never had a hard time making decisions. Had great instincts about everything. What a ball of life. Sparkling personality. This is so sad.”

Mihalopoulos, who was 60, wasn’t someone you’d expect to have heart trouble. She was fit and an avid walker.

But on Sept. 10, she was sitting at her office desk when she got up to show a young attorney colleague a picture on her phone. She said she felt faint, then collapsed. She spent six weeks in intensive care at Baylor University Hospital before dying on Oct. 24, surrounded by loved ones.

“It was a total shock,” said Reena Morris, a close friend since childhood. “Because she’d made it six weeks, we thought she’d turned the corner.

“Maryann was the glue for all of us. I tell everybody, ‘She was the bus driver, and we were the passengers on her bus.’ She told everybody what to do, and we all did it.

“She was a fighter. She was fierce. I always said, ‘Don’t ever underestimate Maryann.’

“She loved entertaining. She could always find an excuse to throw a party.”

‘Mr. Maryann’

Her untimely death shocked Dallas’ business, religious and philanthropic communities. For decades, she and her husband, Frank, have been the go-to couple for getting things done.

Mihalopoulos was an alumna of The Hockaday School and Southern Methodist University and the lead name of Brousseau Graham & Dooley. Brousseau was the name of her first husband, and her professional identity was established before her marriage 26 years ago to Frank Mihalopoulos, a Dallas real estate developer.

Frank liked to call himself “Mr. Maryann” because whenever they went to an event, she dispatched him to work the room while she made a beeline to the person who needed her help the most.

She was multidimensional and a consummate multitasker.

Maryann was the first and only woman president of the board of trustees at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas, serving from 1990 to 1993.

She was on the church council in the late 1980s when it decided to move from Swiss Avenue in East Dallas to Hillcrest and Alpha roads in Far North Dallas.

“Imagine in a Greek community where women don’t typically fill some of these important roles,” said Morris, a fellow church parishioner. “Maryann overfilled them.”

She and Frank turned the Greek Food Festival into one of Dallas’ most popular annual events.

The Rev. Mark Pakes and Maryann were contemporaries growing up at Holy Trinity. She followed the lead of her parents, who were devoted to the church not only financially but in talents and time, Pakes said. “Maryann did so much for the church, things we know about, as well as support for parish initiatives that we don’t know about,” he said.

Wicked smart, people skills

According to Maryann’s biography on the law firm’s website, her favorite quote was: “Remember the 3 A’s: ability, availability, and affability.” It was a saying she adopted from her father that served as a reminder to do her best academically and professionally while being accessible and friendly with everyone she met. Schooling might make for a decent attorney, but it took people skills to care for clients.

I first interviewed Mihalopoulos in 2007, when she had a successful side hustle selling aroma sticks. She named the products Xela, which is Greek for wooden sticks and Alex, the name of her eldest daughter, spelled backward. She figured the name was divine intervention.

The last time I interviewed her was three years ago when I wrote a profile of Karen Katz, who was retiring as CEO of Neiman-Marcus.

Katz considers herself blessed to have been one of Mihalopoulos’ best friends. Their bond was established 25 years ago, when both had sons starting first grade at St. Mark’s School of Texas.

“She was wicked smart, yet she was pragmatic,” Katz said. “That combination made her a truly incredible thinker.

“Her family meant everything to her — both her extended family and her nuclear family. I feel so lucky to have been part of that.”

In addition to Frank, Mihalopoulos is survived by her three children, Alexandra Sarris Halbardier, Arthur Tingay Brousseau and Meredith Foster Mihalopoulos, and two grandchildren. She is also survived by her mother, Linda Foster Sarris, and her sister, Thalia Sarris, and her family.

Mihalopoulos was already a trustee of Hockaday when Jeanne Whitman Bobbitt joined the private girls’ school as headmistress in 2004. They became close friends and confidantes.

“Maryann was absolutely, cheerfully and pragmatically relentless in her support of the city, important causes and education for everyone, especially girls,” Whitman Bobbitt said. “I looked at the picture that ran in the obit — slightly sardonic with just a little ‘who-are-you kidding’ smile. She would get such a kick to hear that people are speaking so positively about her.”

Whitman Bobbitt has a special memory from 2011.

She and Mihalopoulos, who was chairing the school’s centennial campaign at the time, were on the auditorium stage while philanthropist Lyda Hill was spinning yarns about her lifelong association with her alma mater.

The expectation was that Hill would announce a $10 million gift to the school.

Whitman Bobbitt had gotten wind that a bigger gift might be in the offing.

“But Maryann didn’t know that,” Whitman Bobbitt said. “When Lyda made the announcement that she was doubling her gift to $20 million, Maryann was flat-out stunned. She was dumbfounded, and I was overwhelmed with joy. It was an incredible moment.”