Remembering George Spiliotopoulos Remembering George Spiliotopoulos (August 27, 2004)

by by Jeb Bing

F ifteen Pleasanton high school graduates head off to college next month thanks to $8,000 scholarships awarded in the memory of George A. Spiliotopoulos. The gregarious, generous Greek immigrant, who today is still remembered as one of the city's most energetic and popular business and civic leaders, died Dec. 7, 1985. He was 45 years old. Spiliotopoulos had stopped at the Pleasanton Hotel to meet several friends after a citizens' committee meeting with the school district. It was a dark, stormy night and Spiliotopoulos, wearing dark clothes, had his head low because of the pelting rain and was struck down as he crossed to the Cheese Factory that he owned across Main Street. He died three days later as hundreds maintained round-the-clock vigils at Valley Memorial Hospital in Livermore, where doctors had tried to save his life.

Spiliotopoulos came to Pleasanton as a 12-year-old to stay with his aunt and uncle who started the cheese factory. Unable to speak a word of English, he was quite a sight as he registered for grammar school, wearing the traditional Greek schoolboy's short pants, pressed shirt and tie. It wasn't long before he mixed easily with his classmates, graduating near the top of his class at Amador Valley High School, and later earning a degree in dairy management at Cal Poly, where he was named the outstanding dairy student of the year.

When his aunt died, Spiliotopoulos took over the Standard Cheese Company, also known as the Cheese Factory, and quickly expanded it, adding a sales and tasting room. During peak production years, Standard Cheese produced 8,000 pounds a day under the Cheese Factory label, using milk from the Central Valley and introducing the country's first jack cheese with Valley-grown peppers. On Saturdays and Sundays, customers lined up for blocks for tasting treats and to buy his 3-pound Wheel of Cheese products.

Pleasanton businessman Brad Hirst, a close friend of Spiliotopoulos, recalls that the Greek entrepreneur believed in "giving back" to the community that had helped him succeed. He served on the 1964 General Plan citizens' committee that largely shaped the residential and commercial land uses that now make up Pleasanton, and in 1968, at the age of 28, was elected to the City Council, where he worked with others to approve acreage near the new I-580 and I-680 for the regional commercial center that became Stoneridge Shopping Center. In the 1970s, Spiliotopoulos talked publicly about a Pleasanton downtown that would build on its historic architecture with sidewalk restaurants and a pedestrian-friendly business environment that would attract shoppers and diners from throughout the Valley.

Spiliotopoulos started a local golf tournament to help a friend who was seeking more golfers for his struggling Sunol Golf & Country Club. Like other ventures he touched, the George A. Spiliotopoulos Invitational Tournament - known as the GASIT - was a huge success, with the Sunol club course and clubhouse facilities now booked most of the year. Since 1986, Hirst and a score of other close friends have turned the GASIT into a fundraiser for college scholarships, raising $72,000 in the 34th annual GASIT earlier this month and $334,200 since the scholarship fundraiser started. These need-based scholarships go to students who have at least a 2.0 grade point average and one extra-curricular activity. Winners receive $2,000 during each of the four years they are in school. Seniors at Amador, Foothill and Village high schools who are interested in competing for at George A. Spiliotopoulos scholarship should sign up at their school's counseling office next spring.

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