Dear Brother Archons and Friends of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate:

This recognition couldn’t be more richly deserved: Chancellor Kimberly van Noort and the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina Asheville will bestow honorary degrees upon Archon Stavros (Steve) Zeis and his beloved wife Frosene, in view of their many years of dedicated philanthropy and support for the university. Also in honor of their generosity and service to the university, UNC Asheville’s Zeis Science and Multimedia Building is named for Archon Steve and Frosene.

The Honorary Degree Reception will take place on Friday, May 8, 2026 in the Manheimer Room at Reuter Center on the UNC Asheville campus. Dinner will be provided.

These honorary degrees are a recognition of a lifetime of consistent and dedicated diakonia. The three-million-dollar gift that Archon Steve and Frosene made to UNC Asheville is to this day the largest private gift that university has ever received.

In addition to their philanthropy at UNC Asheville, Archon Steve and Frosene established the Steve and Frosene Zeis Textiles Extension for Economic Development (ZTE) with a $1.5 million gift to Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. Today, ZTE benefits thousands of people in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina. Since its inception, ZTE faculty and staff have taught more than 600 courses to over 12,000 students. In turn, this has led to a total economic impact of nearly $300 million for ZTE clients and partners.

Their selfless charity has extended into other areas as well. In 2005, the Steve and Frosene Zeis Children’s Cancer Center was dedicated at Mission Hospital’s SECU Cancer Center in Asheville. The energetic and generous couple is also involved in the arts. In 2009, the Steve and Frosene Classical Court was dedicated at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The Asheville Art Museum, meanwhile, is one of the most recent focuses of the couple’s philanthropic efforts, with two spaces being named after them: the Steve and Frosene Zeis Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall and the Steve and Frosene Zeis Museum Shop.

Above all, Archon Steve and Frosene have been faithful supporters of our Holy Orthodox Faith in America. The Zeises substantially funded the second-phase renovation of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Asheville, NC, and founded the Tony and Helen Morris Hellenic Cultural Center, also in Asheville, in honor of Frosene’s parents. They have contributed significantly toward the building of the Panagia Vimatarisa of Diakonia Retreat and Camp Center in Salem, South Carolina. Also, they contributed to the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at Ground Zero and established an endowment.

Archon Steve and Frosene are fulfilled FOUNDERS of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation and are indefatigably committed to the protection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. They also established scholarships in perpetuity at Hellenic College and the School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. Their support of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America continues to evolve.

Steve Zeis was invested as an Archon on October 18, 2018 and conferred with the offikion Skevophylax.

Congratulations, Archon Steve and Frosene! Axioi!

Yours in the service of our Holy Mother Church,