Sodiri "Gunny" Kafulides

Sodiri “Gunny” Kafulides, 96, husband and best friend to Deborah (Lord) Kafulides, passed away at his home on March 3, 2023 after a brief illness. 

He was born on September 15, 1926 in Boston, Massachusetts to Theodore S. and Katharine “Irene” (Ostopesides) Kafulides.

Serving as a machine gunner in the Marines during WWII on the Islands of Tinian and Saipan in the Pacific Theater, Gunny won awards as a sharp shooter. After graduating from photography school in New York, he worked for the Kodak Corporation and the House of Hinlin. Working at the Ipswich Post Office for over twenty years, Gunny became well-known as a fun-loving, cigar-smoking mail carrier.

Later, he and his wife operated the Stained Glass Connection out of their home on Farley Ave for 25 years, while also working as carpenters, and he used those skills to improve his home and those of his children.  He built the famous Trojan Horse still featured at the annual Greek Picnic at the Hellenic Center on County Road.  He was a voracious reader, lover of PBS, and would debate many subjects, as Greeks do, with whoever dared take him on. He enjoyed meeting up with friends at the Agawam Diner or Dunkin Donuts in Rowley. 

He enjoyed camping with his young family at White Lake State Park in the pop-up camper he handcrafted, towing his daughters on water skis around Ipswich Bay, and teaching his youngest the fundamentals of hitting a softball. He also loved lounging with his cigar on his well-worn beach chair on the sandbar, Steep Hill Beach, and Back Beach.

He loved to dance, especially to disco, with his beloved Debbie. As members of the Rowley Country Club, he and Debbie joined a large group of golfers five days a week until just a few years ago.

Gunny leaves four children: Joanne Damon and her husband Bill of Salisbury, Karen Katherine Davis and her partner Charles Hewitt of Groveland, Katherine Elaine Thibault of Rowley, and Scott Stuart Allie and his wife Elisabeth of Portland, Oregon. He also leaves former sons-in-law Skip Thibault and Philip Davis.

He leaves behind several grandchildren who loved their Grampa, or Papou: Courtney Irene Thibault of Rowley, Andrea Estelle Davis of Groveland, Jordan Joseph Thibault and his wife Brigid of Ipswich, Sidiri and Sarah Allie of Portland, Oregon, May and Arya Collins of Ipswich, and his great-grandchild Toby Reynolds. He also leaves his ShihTzu, Skylo.

He was pre-deceased by his beloved daughter Katherine Constance, who died in early childhood; his grandchildren Michael Aaron Michon and Bethany Damon;  his former wife Theodora Kafulides; and his two brothers, Stephen and John Kafulides. 

He was one in a million, and, as he often speculated, may very well have been a direct descendant of Alexander the Great and Zeus himself.

A graveside service with military honors will be held Friday  March 10th.  at  11:30 A.M.  in the Cowles Memorial Cemetery  29 Town Farm Road, Ipswich.  Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend.  Please omit flowers, consider making a donation in Gunny’s name to:  the Ipswich Humane Group Shelter   17 Fowlers Lane  Ipswich, MA  01938.  Arrangements are under the direction of the Morris Funeral Home of Ipswich.  To send a letter of condolence to the Kafulides family please go to:  MorrisFH.com .

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