Nicholas H Poulos

Nicholas (Nick) Poulos 81 passed away peacefully at home on November 26.
Beloved husband to Eugenia (Jean), Father of David (married to Tina DiBenedetto) Douglas and Deborah (married to Alun Childs), Grandfather to Grace Danny Margaret Mia Nicholas & Nic
He was born in Chicago in 1941, then moved to Stone Park, Illinois, just down the alleyway from his future wife. He began his education going to Greek school through 6th grade, and then went to Roosevelt Junior High where he met some of his lifelong church friends, as well as his future wife. The church (Little White United Methodist Church) became an important part of his future. Jean's parents, Alma, and Earl Weide, were longtime parishioners at that church, and were also foster parents. Throughout their time as foster parents, they fostered over two dozen children. One of those children would later become his daughter, Deborah.
Nick attended Proviso high school, before there was a Proviso East and West, and graduated in 1960 with his future wife. They still hadn't dated yet. While attending the University of Illinois he joined the ROTC Army National Guard. Nick and Jean began dating in his second year of college. At that time he could have been sent to be the one of the ground forces in the invasion of Cuba in 1962. Thankfully, ground troops were never sent, and he returned home.
Nick and Jean were married August 24, 1963. 59 years. Nick continued to serve in the reserves for the National Guard, and was reactivated in 1968 during the Chicago riots (during the National Democratic Convention) where he served downtown out of the armory in Humboldt Park.
Nick and Jean had a community before they started a family. That community was the Little White United Methodist Church. Many of those friends remain to this day. While being a member of the church, Nick immediately got involved. He became Chairman of the Church Council while Jean became the head of the ladies aide. They taught Sunday school and oversaw the Youth Group. That continued even after they moved to their home in Addison in late 1965. Nick had always been handy, but now he was able to devote his energy to their home, and he poured the concrete of their patio, planted their trees, and created a much-used rec room.
They had their first child, David, in 1967. When Jean's mother died and her father was moving, and Deb needed back surgery, Nick and Jean brought her into their home, and she has been their daughter ever since. In 1971 their second, son, Douglas, was born.
Nick took to his new neighborhood and his new role as a parent, like he always did with everything, with a giving heart. Nick continued to live in that same house on Douglas Avenue, where he passed.
Throughout their time together, Nick and Jean built an extended community of their neighbors and church family. When the children were old enough to go to school, Nick became involved in Cub Scouts, and became the Cubmaster of PACK 407. His wife was a den mother. When the boys showed an interest in basketball, he became a coach for 11 years for the Addison Rec Club, even coaching when his children were not involved.
Nick had a profession, one of being a claims adjuster for an insurance company, and then rising to level of claims manager for Ohio Casualty. But his love was being with his family, and traveling. He began using his two week vacations to travel across the country with his family. This continued for decades, and Nick traveled to 49 of the 50 states (all save Hawaii), and all of the Canadian provinces from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. Nick and Jean traversed the country each summer, and took weekend camping trips as soon as the weather turned in April, until Columbus Day in October, every year.
After Nick retired from his insurance job, he developed a second career as a woodworker. What began as helping his wife and ladies aide group with small ornaments for their annual Christmas bazaar, turned into him creating a workshop out of their garage, complete with every woodworking tool he could fit inside.
From that point on, he became Nick Poulos of Copycat Originals. He would make repairs, he would make ornaments, he would make pieces of furniture, cabinetry, bookcases, anything that could be made, or turned out of wood. He turned many pen sets for friends and family. He also began making what would become one of his signature calling cards, wooden rocking horses. Those were sold, or given away over the years, and now those horses are scattered around the globe. How do we know this? The recipients send pictures of their children or grandchildren on the horses from all over the world. They were all handmade and numbered, and the last one to go was number 495.
Nick and Jean also welcomed grandchildren as David had children, Grace, Maggie, and Nicholas. And Nick and Jean were excited to be given three more grandchildren, Danny, Mia and Nic when David married Tina. This gave Nick even more of an excuse to work out in his woodshop and make ornaments for each of the children, shelves for their rooms, even assisting the children in their school projects, making a Conestoga wagon with each of them for their eighth grade social studies project.
Nick and Jean joined good Samaritan United Methodist Church after Little White Church closed. It was soon apparent that they had found a church family that they had been looking for, and they found it at Good Samaritan. For the remainder of his life, Nick was in service to the church and those in it. He cut the church grass every week. He was a Trustee. He did any repairs that needed to be made, along with his other parishioner buddies, Gene and George and Arnie.
Nick was building decks in the summer of 2020 with his grandson Nicholas when he began to have a pain in his arm. He thought it was nothing, and let it go as it waxed and waned. Finally, on August 9, 2020, he drove himself to the hospital for a test. thinking it was a minor, pinched nerve, and given Covid, he drove alone. After tests, the doctor told him that he had stage four metastatic cancer that it was incurable.
He tried many regimens, brain radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, but in the end, Nick was given 79 healthy, nearly perfect years, before he was diagnosed with cancer. He fought and survived for an additional two years plus before finally passing on November 26, 2022.
Nick is preceded in death by his parents Harry & Elizabeth, his brothers Dan (Stella), Bob (Tootie) and George
Nephew Bobby, his in-laws Earl & Alma, sister & brother-in-law Dody & Owen, Aldo DiBenedetto and Glyn Childs
Gifts in memory of Nick may be made to Good Samaritan Methodist Church
To watch live below is the link to Good Samaritan United Methodist Church https://www.facebook.com/GoodSamUMCAddison