31 Facts About Peter Angelos

Peter George Angelos was born on July 4,1929 and is an American trial lawyer and baseball executive from Baltimore, Maryland.

Peter Angelos is the son of John and Frances Peter Angelos, who immigrated to the United States from Menetes, Karpathos, Greece.

Peter Angelos married Georgia Kousouris in 1966, and they had two children together, John and Louis.

Peter Angelos' family settled in the working-class neighborhood of Highlandtown and lived in a row house.

Peter Angelos then attended law school at night at the University of Baltimore School of Law and was named class valedictorian.

Peter Angelos passed the bar in 1961 and opened an office specializing in handling product-liability cases for employees, almost always on a contingency basis.

Peter Angelos' take from that litigation alone has been estimated at $330 million.

Peter Angelos served a brief stint on the Baltimore City Council and ran for mayor on the city's first interracial ticket in 1967, and lost.

Peter Angelos successfully lobbied the state legislature to change the law to allow the state's suit to proceed.

Peter Angelos represented the state of Maryland in a suit against Philip Morris and suing Wyeth, the makers of part of the diet pill combination fen-phen.

Peter Angelos went on to hold a seat on the Baltimore City Council from 1959 to 1963.

Peter Angelos was the first Greek-American to be elected to the council.

Peter Angelos has used his influence with the small business community to call for the continuation of Maryland's Contributory negligence laws while most of the United States has adopted the more equitable distributary negligence system.

Peter Angelos donated $272,000 to the independent expenditure-only committee Draft Biden which sought to induce Vice President Joe Biden to enter the 2016 Democratic Primary for President.

In 1993 Peter Angelos assembled a group of investors to purchase the Orioles from New York venture capitalist Eli Jacobs.

Peter Angelos took over as managing partner and principal owner of the team.

Peter Angelos immediately became a hands-on owner and was willing to pay high salaries to talented free agents.

Peter Angelos did not like that arrangement and he did not particularly care if the world found out.

When talks between the players and the owners stalled in December 1994, and the owners voted to impose a salary cap, Peter Angelos was one of three dissenters to the arrangement.

Peter Angelos announced his decision about replacement players early in 1995 and was hailed in blue-collar Baltimore as a champion of the worker.

Peter Angelos arranged for a two-game exhibition series to be played between the Orioles and the Cuban national baseball team in 1999.

Since he became owner of the Orioles, Peter Angelos has been a controversial figure.

Critics accused Peter Angelos rapidly hiring and firing baseball managers, and reportedly overruling their decisions.

Peter Angelos' health began to fail in recent years, and his sons Louis and John began to take on more leadership roles in the Orioles as he focused more on his health.

In October 2019 John P Angelos, vice president of the Orioles, stated that neither he nor his father Peter had any plans to relocate the Orioles outside of Baltimore, contrary to rumors.

Peter Angelos is known for various acts of charity and philanthropy, having contributed millions to civic and community institutions around Maryland.

Peter Angelos has donated millions of dollars to the Democratic Party and its candidates, and is a major supporter of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation.

Peter Angelos is the largest individual donor to the University of Baltimore and pledged $5 million to the school in 2008.

In 2010, The Baltimore Sun reported that Peter Angelos had recently donated $10 million to the university.

Peter Angelos was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1996.

In 2016, Peter Angelos was inducted into Baltimore Sun's Business and Civic Hall of Fame for his lifetime of philanthropy.