I have said many times, unbeknownst to you, that I will deliver your funeral oration in order to pay tribute to you in a painful ultimate effort to use my mental capacities at the last farewell.
And I used to say so because I never believed it, because it looked so remote, so impossible, so far away from your life, your energy, your liveliness, your laughter.
And when the time came so suddenly I did not make it. I did not even try...
That sorry night of 4 January 1996 when you left us I felt that the last doctor, the last charismatic philosopher of human equilibrium, the last indefatigable teacher was also lost.
I never realised you were growing old. I thought you were immutable before time, before difficulties, before hindrances, before petty troubles. In the same steady and certain rhythm in your thoughts and your opinions you shared your dreams, you tried in your so characteristic calmness and patience to convey to us your theory of life, you had an impact on us slowly, steadily, permanently. And the more I was growing up the more I understood what you stood for and I admired you.
A pioneer of Acupuncture in Greece, tireless supporter of preventive medicine, the connecting link among alternative therapeutic methods, an evangelist for holistic medicine. Using simple words you made people think, you taught, you persuaded. You opened up avenues of thought and understanding. You offered calmness, you gained trust, you gave happiness.
Until your last days I remember you always indefatigable and smiling, offering your Knowledge and experience to doctors and not only to them. The same as twenty years ago when I first met you.
And you left suddenly, in just a moment. The way you talked about it. From research, teaching, creativity, writing, lecturing ... to the unknown. From life with Karavis to life without Karavis. Leaving behind a huge oeuvre and a great void to all of us who have lived with you.
Have a nice trip! Even after many years your calm and laughing face will still be living inside us. Sometimes it will give us strength, sometimes the cry for your absence will choke us.
Dinos Chr. Rovlias
Attorney -at- Law
CURRICULUM VITAE
He was born in Famagusta, Cyprus and studied Medicine at the University of Athens, Greece.
Even as a student he had such faith in the Greek traditional medicine, preventive medicine and natural therapeutics that, along with the courses at the Medical School, he also attended extracurricular courses on all the other therapeutic systems. He published his theories in successive reviews, lectures and publications.
As soon as he gratuated, he published ''Grapetherapy'' and established in Paradissos, Maroussi, the first Health Clinic based on natural therapeutical methods. Having studied Pathology, Paediatrics and Child Psychology he was assigned as a countryside doctor and then as Director of a Municipal Health Station (citation for excellent actions).
He went to Cyprus (1958) and within six months he established the School Medical Service at the Hellenic Schools of Famagusta for 8.000 children. It was the first time that the pupils heard about health rules, it was the first time they were weighed and measured, it was the first time they were told how to sit on their desk, it was the first time they shared their immediate problems and, along with the nursing staff who was always at their side, the doctor became their inseparable companion and counsel in sickness and health.
In 1959 he established the First Aid Corps, the presence of which was enthusiastically greeted in football fields and disaster areas. Fifth grade pupils attended courses at Municipal Child-care Centres and were ready to nurse babies. They even went to hospitals and attended courses on nursing. Many of them learnt how to bandage injuries and make injections. They became valuable helpers of caring for patients at home.
Upon his return in Athens (1962) he became a family doctor at IKA and went immediately to London to study the institution of Family Doctor,practised there already since 1946.
Both in Cyprus and in Athens he continued to publish. In Cyprus he edited the medical journal ''Health'' and in Athens the journal ''Physiotherapy'' and later on the journal ''Acupuncture and Health'', along with his contribution to the publication of the first issues of the journal ''Homeopathic Medicine''. He always believed that no proper health politics could exist without the catholic participation of the public in the whole effort. And what would stimulate him is training, continued education.
In 1973 he published the first Greek paper on Acupuncture and in the same year he established the first Hellenic Acupuncture Research Centre. In 1985 he established the Hellenic Acupuncture Society with a group of colleagues.
Ever since he dedicated himself to Acupuncture. By means of lectures, presentations, seminars, colloquia and conferences he made acupuncture known to the Greek public and the medical world.
In 1977 he started a systematic effort to train doctors to use Acupuncture in surgery with the help of Dr Nguyen Van Nghi, in charge of the traditional Chinese Acupuncture courses at the Joint Medical And Pharmaceutical School of Marseilles.
In 1987 he established the Hellenic Hippocrates Foundation and in 1990, in conjuction with the European Center for Peace and Development of the University of Peace he established the International Postgraduate Center of Acupuncture.
HE WAS:
· Founder and President for a great number of years of the Hellenic Medical Acupuncture Society and an active member till to the end of his life.
· Founding member of the Hellenic Homeopathic Society (1973)
· Founder of the Hellenic Hippocrates Foundation (1978)
· Founder of the International Postgraduate Center of Acupuncture (1990)
· Member of the Board of Directors of the International Acupuncture Society
· Honorary member of the South Korea Acupunture Society
· Honorary member of the South Africa Acupunture Society
· Honorary member of the Cyprus Acupuncture Society
PUBLICATIONS
-PHYSIOTHERAPY, a review (1949-1952)
-HEALTH, a review (Cyprus, 1960-1961)
-Grapetherapy (1955 - 1959, 1962 - 1980)
-For a country-side surgery in Greece (1962)
-Ten years of progress in Medicine (1958)
-The fight against malaria and its extinction
-The institution of Family Doctor in England (1965)
-School hygiene in the Hellenic Schools of Famagusta, Cyprus
-Preventive medicine (1968 - 1980)
-Homeopathic medicine (1970)
-Acupuncture in the framework of holistic medicine (1973)
-Health and Acupuncture, a review (1976 - 1978)
-Acupuncture in Greece (1982)
-Bavarian Health Centres and Dr Kneipp (1971)
-A contribution to holistic medicine (1980)
-Fruit diet course (1985)
-Acupuncture (1985)
-Acupuncture as a therapeutic method
-The therapeutic course