By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published July 27, 2022

Downtown Everett’s shoe repairer lived to 92


Doug Ramsay file photo

In 2018, Mihail Papadimitriou showed off a size 18 shoe from one of his many customers inside his shoe repair shop.

EVERETT — Everett’s downtown shoe repairman, Mihail “Mike” Papadimitriou, has died.
He passed June 25 at age 92.
His shop, People’s Shoe Repair, was a hole-in-the-wall spot at 2825 Wetmore Ave. which operated for decades until quietly closing just two years ago.
Mike was about four when family members in America opened shop. He immigrated here from Greece in 1967 and took over the family business in the early 1970s.
In 2018, he sat down with Tribune writer Patricia Therrell to tell his story. Asked why a shoe repair shop, he replied: “All Greeks, when they come to this country, open restaurants. The hours and days are long. I wanted to live my life and so a shoe shop would have regular hours.”
Such a wise man.

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