Skevofilax Sulunias was born on the 12th of July 1903 in Calymnos, a Greek island in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Formerly a part of Turkey and Italy, Calymnos was united with mainland Greece after WWII and is now part of the modern Greek state.
Sakelarios, Skevofilax's father, was a sponge merchant. "Sponge diving has long been a common occupation on Kalymnos and sponges were the main source of income of Kalymnians, bringing wealth to the island and making it famous throughout the Mediterranean."*
In 1917, Skevofilax migrated to the United States. Traveling with his father, who by this time was an American citizen having first arrived in 1881. Skevofilax was granted, for reasons unknown, an emergency U.S. Passport by the U.S. Legation in Anthens, Greece.
Not much is publically documented about Skevofilax's life in the United States. On the 1930 and 1940 US Census, he is listed as a patient at the Pilgrim State Hospital in Islip, Long Island. It is noted on both documents, that he is a Greek citizen and that his primary language is Greek.
Sakelarious Sulunias died at Gouverneur Hospital in Manhattan in 1937 and was buried in Rosedale and Linden Cemetery in New Jersey. On the death certificate it states that Sakelarious is widowed, therefore Skevofilax may have lost his last remaining parent with the death of his father. Another family member living in Atlanta, Michael Sulunias, thought to be his father's brother, died in 1948.
Skevofilax Sulunias died at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn on the 2nd of April 1982 and was buried on Hart Island on the 24th of June 1982.
