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• 1 2020-10-13T22:46:56+00:00 The Frederic J. Kakis, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Group Study Room 13 image_header 2021-03-12T18:08:55+00:00 The Frederic J. Kakis, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Group Study Room, located on the third floor in Room 324, was the very first story room to be dedicated in the Leatherby Libraries, back in November 2008. The dedication of the room to Professor Kakis was chosen by Dr. Richard Pitts '70, one of his former students, along with his wife, Colleen Pitts. As a student at Chapman, Dr. Pitts was inspired by Professor Kakis' expertise in chemistry as well as his heroic story of surviving the Holocaust as a Greek Jewish resistance fighter.
  
  Although Professor Kakis was very young (only eleven years old) when World War II reached his small hometown of Drama, Greece, he and his family made the terrifying and powerful decision to disobey German commands and join the resistance. His immediate family was one of only two Greek Jewish families that survived World War II, and the Holocaust, intact.
  
  After finishing high school, Professor Kakis moved to the US to attend the City University of New York (CUNY), and from there he went on to earn his doctorate in chemistry at Stanford University. His career eventually lead to his taking on the roles of Chair of the Chemistry Department and the Division of Natural Sciences at Chapman University.
  
  The story room named in Professor Kakis' honor contains a variety of memorabilia, documents, and photographs chronicling his time in the Greek Resistance and his academic career. The room also includes, on the wall, a framed open letter written by Professor Kakis to the students of Chapman University. Included in this letter is the exhortation to students, "You have the chance to change the world. Go for it."
  
  You can read more about how this encouragement continues to touch current Chapman University students in a blog post about the story room by Leatherby Libraries student employee Jimmy Elinski.