Nick was born in Karytaina, Greece. He had an idyllic early childhood. Then, he survived years of Nazi occupation, ending with the vivid memory of NATO forces handing out Crisco, which he promptly opened and ate from the can with a spoon.  Despite years with no formal education during the war, he had extremely high test scores. At age 20, knowing no English, he immigrated to the United States to attend Indiana University. He painstakingly translated and hand re-wrote each of his textbooks into Greek using a dictionary so that he could continue to make excellent grades. And after completing his undergraduate degree in Economics, he finished a masters degree at the University of Michigan and he did Ph.D. work at West Virginia University.  Nick moved to Huntington, West Virginia in 1965 to be a professor of Economics at Marshall University. He happily taught there for 48 years before retiring at age 81.  While teaching at Marshall, he met and married Sharon (Stone) Kontos. They were married for just shy of 50 years. Together they traveled to more than 25 countries, returning often to Greece, which was their second home.  When Nick was about to turn 50, he and Sharon welcomed their only daughter, Eleni Christina, and she became their new adventure. He was the best baba and he adored every second with his family.  Nick had many friends. He had a running card game for decades and he had golfing buddies at every course in the TriState. He often played multiple rounds per week and managed to get 5 holes-in-one over the years. But his happiest day was playing the old course at St. Andrews.
Though he always missed his family in Greece, he was blessed to find a church family at St. George Greek Orthodox Church where he could often be found outside with other men having a “breath of fresh air” (smoking) after services. Sitting beside Sharon, Eleni and her husband, Christopher Miller, and his grandchildren, Evyenia Krina, Stavros Christoforos, and Athena Kontopoulou at church were his happiest moments.  In eternal rest with Christ, Nicholas joins his beloved grandparents Demetrios and Eleni Kontopoulos and Constantinos and Evyenia Scourletti, his beloved parents Christos and Krina Kontopoulos, and his beloved big brothers Demetrios and Constantinos Kontopoulos. He will be deeply missed by his wife, daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren, his sister Eirini (Kontopoulou) Grivas, in-laws, nieces, nephews, friends, and neighbors.  Nicholas was alway teaching something or learning something. He will be remembered as a loving man whose quiet presence was always accompanied by kindness and a smile.  Private services will be conducted for the family, with burial at Spring Hill Cemetery, Huntington.