Kaliopee “Topy” Malagaris Fiske, age 84, died July 17th, 2026 after a long illness. She was born on July 22nd, 1941, to Emmanuel John and Harriet Georgia Malagaris at St. Francis Hospital in Freeport. Kaliopee was a 1959 graduate of Freeport High School and a 1963 graduate of the University of Illinois, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism and Communications. This degree led her to 43 years as a reporter, editor, columnist, managing editor, and senior editor for news desks and operations that began at the Freeport Journal-Standard and ended at the Los Angeles Times, with stops in between at the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Examiner.

During her newspaper career, she managed a number of projects that ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize, Robert F. Kennedy Humanitarian Award, and the Penney-Missouri Award for special series.

"There were so few jobs for women in archaeology, and I had to earn a living, so I opted for journalism, a decision I never regretted. It enabled me to meet people and have experiences not easily available to women at the time. There was a lot of discrimination in the workplace and it was very competitive. It did get better over time, but I had to come up with ways to work around the culture and move ahead, and that part was not easy.”

After taking early retirement from the Times in 2002, she began a 13-year stint at the British Museum in London, England, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, a foray into archaeology, which was her first career choice. Among her many duties at the BM was writing and designing the Training Manual for the Museum’s International Training Programme. This program trains curators and archaeologists from at-risk and emerging countries and teaches them how to preserve and save their antiquities, of particular importance to those from war-torn countries in the Middle East, where extremist groups were destroying national monuments. She also worked on projects sponsored by Yale University, the University of Rome, and the German Archaeological Institute. She made many long-time friends while working in London and in other countries when she was sent by the Times to find “best practices” and bring them back to the paper. She said she appreciated the opportunities afforded to her and would sometimes wonder how her career choice enabled her to have them.

Topy was an inveterate traveler, having visited at least 70 countries and at one point took an around-the-world trip by ship for four months. Among the notable passengers were Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and international young scholars who invented cost-effective methods for cleaning up water, protecting the environment, and designing innovative health procedures for those living in impoverished countries.

She called her yen for travel the “Odysseus Syndrome,” a tip of the hat to her Greek heritage. “When I was a child on the East Side of Freeport, I remember hearing the sharp sound of the early morning train whistle, especially in winter, and wondered where it was going, and knowing I wanted to see what lay beyond my hometown.”

She was an avid mountain climber, hiker, and whitewater rafter, which she did around the world, from New Zealand to the Grand Canyon, and saw first-hand many of the world’s wonders, from King Tut’s Tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt to the Great Wall of China. Her British friends called her “Intrepid.”

Topy had a life-long interest in music, from the time she sang in Dorothy Wilson’s A Cappella Choir at Freeport High School followed by her years with the University of Illinois Concert Choir. After moving to Chicago, she studied at the American Conservatory of Music and after moving to Los Angeles, performed in nightclubs and other venues in the country with TFX (Topy Fiske Experience), a band named after her by her Los Angeles Times colleagues.

She always looked fondly at the life, friends, and education she received in Freeport and felt a real kinship to the friends and relatives she had there. “Freeport was a great place to grow up.”

Kaliopee is survived by her son George Malagaris, his wife Maja Petrovich, and their daughter, Artemis Sophia, of Naas, County Kildare, Ireland; her son Peter Fiske, his wife Katharina Meijboom, and their sons, Gabriel Erasmus and Lawrence Aurelius, of Worcester, MA; her sister and brother-in-law, Nota and Ron Ippen of Stillman Valley, IL; her nephew Todd Ippen, his wife Bessie, and their family of Spring Grove, IL; and relatives in Athens and Samos, Greece, and Sydney, Australia.

Services will be held at Tuesday July 28, 2026 at 10:00 am at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Freeport. There will be a visitation from 9:30 am until the time of service at the church. Interment will be in Oakland Cemetery.

Memorials have been established for American Hellenic/Soviet Doctors Without Borders & UNICEF in Topy's memory. 

They can be mailed to; 32 Almont Avenue Apt 3 Worcester, MA 01640