John Akouris: Hollywood security 'star'

I knew that John Akouris, former VP of sales for Moore Protection, was a movie buff  who played a big role annually in helping select the winner of Moore Protection's Morpheus Award.

Moore Protection, a security company based in Redondo Beach, Calif., gives out the award—which I like to all the “Security Oscar”—each year at Academy Awards time to a movie that “that best depicts the realistic use of modern security technology in mainstream media.” Akouris' astute comments about the winning film always made me want to rush right out to watch it.

But Akouris, 78, who died of congestive heart failure on June 25, also was “a star” who made his own unique mark on Hollywood community in his many years of protecting Los Angeles' most high-profile residents, according to Don Moore, president of Moore Protection.

Here's more that Moore wrote about Akouris, who previously worked for Westec Security before joining Moore Protection, where he retired in 2010 but still retained the title of VP of sales emeritus:

John did as much to further the positive image of our security profession as anyone in memory, consulting with the “movers and shakers” of the Hollywood crowd since the mid-seventies while overseeing the West L.A. sales force of the most formidable alarm installation company in town. He was truly a star in a town full of stars, enjoying and reveling in his reputation for taking seriously his responsibility to protect while entertaining the entertainers with his myriad stories, anecdotes and insightful observations. His awards and accolades are too many to recount here but one glance around his den is testament to a lifetime of honors bestowed upon him, scattered among the celebrity photos inscribed lovingly by his famous but grateful clientele. …

He is survived by his bride of fifty-six years and high school sweetheart, Elaine, and their son Arthur, as well as throngs of extended family, friends, business associates and clients who came to love him as much for the care and diligence he conveyed in protecting them and their loved ones as for his larger than life personality and broad range of knowledge and experience. …

He will be missed greatly by all those who knew and loved him down here, but rest assured that Heaven is today a much safer place than it was before his arrival!