A LIFE OF SERVICE
Inaugural Hellenic Heritage and Faith Award
Thursday, October 22, 2026
6:00 PM social hour · 7:00 PM dinner & program
Emerald Event Center, Avon, OH
About the Honoree
The Greek Garden Association of Cleveland will present the inaugural Hellenic Heritage and Faith Award to Archon Carl R. Hollister, Archon Referendarios, Executive Director of the Saint Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine. His Eminence Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh has confirmed and will be in attendance, together with the clergy of the Greater Cleveland and Lorain parishes.
Tickets are $75 per person; VIP tables of eight are $1,000. The evening includes a seated dinner, remarks from GGAC on the Parthenon Frieze, and a video loop by Alex Rokakis.
Carl has lived a life serving; his family, his nation, his church, and the AHEPA.
Carl is a retired U.S. Army Officer (Major) in the Army Reserves with 21 years active and reserve service as both enlisted and commissioned service. Seventeen of those years he served in Special Operations units. Carl served tours of duty in Central America and Central Asia and trained US Forces for the Balkans and Northern Africa. Carl graduated from the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School where he trained in Foreign Internal Defense and Unconventional Warfare (FID UW). Carl specialized in Psychological Operations and Civil Military Operations. He served with various special operations groups and conventional units throughout his military career. He is a decorated combat veteran, with a Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, campaign medals and multiple other awards. Carl and his teams received noteworthy accolades in the book Counterinsurgency in Eastern Afghanistan 2004-2008 written by Robert Kemp of the U.S. State Department.
With over 30 years of experience in the securities industry, Carl retired in 2025 from L.M. Kohn & Company, a regional S.E.C. Registered Investment Advisor and Broker/Dealer, serving the mass affluent market, small corporate, and non-profit client marketplace, where he was responsible for 60 branch offices nationwide, overseeing more than $4.6 billion in client assets. Further, Carl served on many corporate boards and advisory councils, including the Cleisthenes Project and the RBC Wealth Management Advisory Board.
He is a dedicated supporter of the Greek Orthodox Church of America, the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople, and the Order of AHEPA. He currently serves on the National Council for the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and as a board member of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation (EPBF), where he serves as Audit Committee Chairman. He also serves on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Council on the finance and audit committees. He is a member of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in St. Augustine, Florida. For the Order of AHEPA, he is a Past Supreme President and Past Vice Chairman for the AHEPA Board of Trustees. Carl also served as Chairman and CEO for the AHEPA National Housing Corporation, a nonprofit company with a portfolio of over 90 affordable independent and assisted senior living communities nationwide.
Carl is blessed to currently serve as the Executive Director of the Saint Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine located in St. Augustine, Florida, the first national shrine for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. This sacred shrine represents the “Plymouth Rock” for the Greek Diaspora and the beginning of the Orthodox Faith in the new world. Carl and his staff are expanding programs, including lectures and pilgrimages, as well as collaborations with institutions such as colleges, universities, HCHC and OCMC. Carl strongly encourages all Orthodox Faithful to come visit and witness the sacred shrine.
