As America marked its 250th anniversary, Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos shared a deeply personal reflection on his own American story — one rooted in Greece, faith, family and the immigrant experience.
In the segment, Stephanopoulos traces his family’s journey from Greece to the United States, including his paternal grandfather’s arrival from the Peloponnesian village of Neochori in 1938 to serve as a missionary priest in the American West. His maternal grandfather came earlier, arriving from Patra in 1912, working on the railroads and in service jobs before eventually settling in Rochester, Minnesota, where he opened a shoe repair business.
The story also touches on Stephanopoulos’ parents, the late Rev. Dr. Robert G. Stephanopoulos and Presvytera Nikki Stephanopoulos, and the Greek Orthodox life that shaped his upbringing in a family that eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio.
For Stephanopoulos, the story is not one of choosing between identities, but of fully embracing both.
“I’m fully American, and fully Greek,” he says in the segment, reflecting on a generation of Greek Americans who worked to preserve their faith, traditions and community while also embracing the opportunities of life in the United States.
