Andreas Karatzas was born on November 2, 1920 in the village of Lykouria, Kalavriton. His mother passed away during his birth, leaving his father a widow with three young children. However, he later remarried and had a total of 7 children, Andreas, the oldest boy, Giota, Giorgia, Dionisio, Taso, Ourania, and Giorgos. Andrea cared and provided for the family, during the German occupation when their home and belongings were burned. He enlisted in the Greek army during the Greek-Italian war and the German occupation. After his service, he was decorated for his valor.

On November 5, 1957 he married his wife of 57 years, Paraskevi, with whom he had three children with, Yianni, Harula, and Panagioti. He devoted his entire life to his family and made the very difficult decision at the age of 55 to leave their comfortable lives in Greece behind and move to America, in hopes of a better life. As a father, Andreas never yelled, reprimanded or hit his children. His philosophy about punishment always was: I won't hurt you, because your own actions will end up hurting you. He believed in imparting wisdom on his children through riddles and lessons.

Andreas lived a humble and simple life. On Sundays he would take three buses just to get to his beloved St. Anthony's church. During the week he was seen many times by his family closing his bedroom door and studying the bible. He was a hard worker, who never took a day off. He did not believe in taking advantage of others in order to prosper or speaking badly about another person. In fact, Andreas was never heard complaining or swearing; a negative comment never came out of his mouth. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather and will be missed greatly by his loved ones.

Throughout his life Andreas would say, I was born in November, I was married in November and I will die in November. True to his word to the end.