C. 'Chris' Pavlides, 62, executive

Constantine "Chris" Pavlides, 62, of West Chester, founder and chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group and an associate professor at the Fox School of Business at Temple University, died Tuesday in a single-car crash after suffering a heart attack.

The accident occurred in Concord Township, Delaware County. Mr. Pavlides was on his way to a class at Temple.

In June 2002, Mr. Pavlides organized the first meeting of the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group (GPSEG). The networking organization was geared to C-level executives - shorthand for chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and so on - who had lost their jobs.

Fourteen months earlier, he had lost his position as chief financial officer of Electron Direct in Wilmington.

"For the first month, I stayed behind the computer trying to get work," he told an Inquirer reporter in 2003. He soon realized that he needed a break from the isolation.

Heading GPSEG became his job - with no salary.

"We operated on the idea that it was better to give than receive," he said. "It provides psychic income in the short term by helping others. In the long term, you hope it will provide income by landing a job."

In May 2003, Mr. Pavlides found a position through his networking group, as chief operating officer and chief financial officer at StrikeForce Technologies in Edison, N.J. After driving the two-hour commute for more than a year, Mr. Pavlides left StrikeForce to become executive director of the Fox School's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute.

In that post, he established Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures, a science and high-technology business cultivator, and the Temple University Council on Entrepreneurship. After leaving the institute in 2008, he continued to teach at Temple.

"Chris connected the school to businesspeople, and the students loved him. His vibrant teaching style made him complete," Fox dean M. Moshe Porat said.

Mr. Pavlides continued to lead GPSEG while teaching. Last month, he told an Inquirer reporter that the group had accepted its 1,000th member in September. Besides holding events around Center City, the nonprofit group had expanded to Princeton, the Lehigh Valley, and South Jersey, and Mr. Pavlides said he had inquiries about starting chapters in Texas, California, and Alaska.

He said he believed the group's growth reflected the value it placed on face-to-face networking.

"If you're not reaching out to help or be helped by friends, colleagues, former bosses, customers, and suppliers, you're not building a network. You must give as much as you get," he said.

A native of Athens, Greece, Mr. Pavlides came to the United States in 1969 with $70 in his pocket and plans to attend college, said his wife, Charlotte Nagy Pavlides.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Kutztown University, where he met his wife. He earned a master's degree in finance and international business from City University of New York while working for Atlantic Bank.

For the next 25 years, he held senior positions with companies in New York, Connecticut, and Texas. For three years, he worked in Athens while with American Express Banking Corp.

He and his family moved to West Chester in 2000, when he joined Electron Direct.

He was always starting something, his wife said, and established the Hellenic American Bankers Association when they lived in New York and the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce when they lived in Houston.

Mr. Pavlides, who became a U.S. citizen in 1976, was proud of his Greek heritage and appreciated the rich diversity of all cultures, his wife said.

They and their two children visited museums and national parks in all 50 states, visited relatives in Greece, and traveled all over Western Europe. In recent years, he and his wife and son traveled to China, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

"He was 100 percent dedicated to his work, and 100 percent dedicated to his family, she said.

In addition to his wife of 34 years, Mr. Pavlides is survived by son Charles, daughter Elizabeth Lowery, a brother, two sisters, and a grandson.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 1607 W. Union Blvd., Bethlehem, Pa., where friends may call after 10:30. Burial will be in Green Mount Cemetery, Bath, Pa.