George P. Kalangis, at 74; was a Greek Orthodox priest and educator

“Our father knew the only way out of the village was education,’’ his younger brother, Dr. Constantine Kalangis of Quincy, said.

In 1949, Panagiotis and Christina Kalangis sent their two youngest children, George and Constantine, 80 miles north to a seven-year seminary school in Corinth.

After his graduation, George Kalangis went to the United States on a student visa, enrolling in a Hellenic college in Brookline.

Fifty-two years later, after earning six college degrees and presiding over nine congregations, the Rev. Dr. Kalangis died of cancer July 15 at Calvary Hospital in New York. He was 74.

At 15, Rev. Kalangis enrolled in Corinth Theological Seminary, becoming the first in his family to attend college. A year later, his brother joined him.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in theology in 1956, Rev. Kalangis was accepted into Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline.

His father, Panagiotis Kalangis was working in Springfield as a cook, aiming to bring his family to America. Rev. Kalangis, his first son, was the first to make it.

While studying theology in Brookline, Rev. Kalangis caught the eye of a young Greek-American girl, Helen Liberis [nee Limperopoulos] of Roslindale.

“He would be in the male choir across the way. We would exchange glances,’’ said the presbytera (the Greek title for a priest’s wife) of New Hyde Park, N.Y. “It was fate that we would meet.’’

In June 1960, Rev. Kalangis graduated from Holy Cross. Four months later, the couple wed at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Boston. A month after the wedding, he was ordained a deacon.

In March 1961, he was ordained to the priesthood and began as the assistant dean at Annunciation Cathedral. During his two years there, the couple had their first two children, Peter and Denise.

In 1963, the archdiocese chose Rev. Kalangis to lead Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

But after a year, he felt forced to move back.

“The reason why Dad requested to come back was because we kids missed Yia-Yia [our grandmother],’’ said his son, Peter of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.

Rev. Kalangis became the priest at Saints Anargyroi Church in Marlborough, where he would stay for seven years. There he began his tradition of drawing big crowds of children to Greek school.

He used similar methods later at Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Portsmouth, N.H.

“He needed to entice the kids to come . . . So on Saturdays, after Dad finished teaching, he’d get the children and play soccer with them. Just him and a bunch of kids,’’ his son said. “Then in Portsmouth, it was street hockey.’’

Within several months of returning to Massachusetts, he earned a master’s of Sacred Theology degree in social psychology from Andover Newton Theological School in Newton.

A year later, he began working on a master’s in library science at the University of Rhode Island. That September, he was hired as the Marlborough High School librarian.

“Dad was constantly on the go,’’ his son said. “There was Sunday school, Greek School, organizing bazaars. Then, Monday through Friday, he was at the high school.’’

After earning his second master’s in 1966, Rev. Kalangis took the assistant librarian position at Assumption College in Worcester.

A year later, he moved to the Brandeis University library in Waltham, where he worked for four years.

In 1970, Rev. Kalangis welcomed Archbishop Iakovos, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America, to the small Saints Anargyroi congregation in Marlborough.

It was the first time an archbishop had visited the community.

The next year, Iakovos transferred Rev. Kalangis to lead the larger, 50-family congregation at Saint Nicholas in Portsmouth.

While there, he worked as an associate psychology professor and assistant librarian at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord.

He also began commuting to Boston University for counselor education classes.

Within a year, he earned a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies from BU’s School of Education.

After about six years in Portsmouth, Rev. Kalangis left to pursue a doctorate at Florida State University in Tallahassee. While there, he led Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church.

In 1977, he was appointed director of the cultural resource center at the university’s College of Education.

Two years later, he received his PhD in bilingual/bicultural education from FSU.

The family then moved to Fort Walton Beach, Fla., where he led Sunday services at Saints Markella and Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and worked as the learning resources director at Okaloosa-Walton Junior College in Niceville.

The diocese also appointed him to oversee Greek studies and culture for five Southern states.

About four years later, at the age of 48, Rev. Kalangis moved to New Hyde Park, N.Y., where he and his wife remained for 26 years.

In New York, he led four churches: Transfiguration of Christ in Corona; Zoodohos Peghe in the Bronx; Panagia in Island Park; and Saint Markella in Wantagh.

In 1986, he was anointed Protopresbyter, the highest title a married Greek Orthodox priest can attain.

Coupled with his pastoral duties in New York, Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York, assigned him in 1989 as the Greek Orthodox chaplain to three metropolitan psychiatric centers: Manhattan, Bronx, and the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens.

Father Paul Chaenot, a Roman Catholic chaplain who shared a Creedmoor office with the Rev. Kalangis for 18 years, said their duties included meeting with grieving families and administering last rights.

“The patients all loved him,’’ Chaenot said. “He was very generous with his time.’’

In 2002, doctors diagnosed Rev. Kalangis with cancer.

He continued his Sunday sermons for another three years.

He then served as an on-call priest for his four former New York churches until 2008.

“My father was a true Spartan,’’ his son said, “a soldier of God.’’

In addition to his wife, brother, and son, Rev. Kalangis leaves three daughters, Denise Freeman of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and Demetra and Crystal of New Hyde Park, N.Y.; three sisters, Maria Kapsaskis of Jamaica Plain, Athanasia Papadakis of Roslindale, and Anna Giannopoulos of Arlington; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. today in Annunciation Cathedral in Boston.