Leo Tsakiris

1933 - 2019

Leo Tsakiris

Knoxville - Leo Tsakiris, age 86, passed away on September 3, 2019. Leo was born on March 2, 1933 in New York City. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Nick and Margaret Tsakiris, and his brother, George Tsakiris. He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Barbara Jean Madgett Tsakiris; children, Laura Ann Tsakiris, Janet Elizibeth Greenwood, and Christopher Leo Tsakiris; and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews and nieces.

Leo earned a bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY in 1957, a Professional Engineering License from NY State in 1964, and a Master of Science in Engineering Management in 1967 from Drexel University Philadelphia, PA.

He served in the US Army Corp of Engineers on active duty for two years, from 1958 thru 195, attaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant. He was with the 27th engineer Bn, 937 Engineering Group, in support of the 101st airborne Division at Ft Campbell, KY then 6 additional years in the active reserve.

Upon completing his active duty service, he was employed by Mobil Oil Co. as Terminal Superintendent in Binghampton, NY, then joined EI Dupont as Construction Division Engineer in Wilmington, Delaware and subsequently as Project Management engineer-mechanical for American Electric Power on the DC Cook Nuclear Plant.

Leo was employed by Ebasco Services Inc as Assistant Project Manager for the Unit 1 St Lucie Nuclear plant in 1973. He finished his career with Ebasco as Corporate Vice President in 1992. His proudest accomplishment during that time was as project manager for the St. Lucie Unit 2 Nuclear plant, which set a US record of achievement for US Nuclear plants by completed construction from first above ground concrete placement to start of Fuel Core Load in 65 months, on the original schedule and on budget. The St Lucie Units are among the top operating units in the U.S.

He moved to East TN to take an assignment as Project Director/VP for Ebasco on the TVA Watts Bar Nuclear Plants. The good part of that assignment was his introduction to East TN and his wife, B.J. The not so good part was the introduction of government inefficiency and waste.

Leo retired in 1992 and settled in East Tennessee with his wife, B.J., who also fulfilled the role of interpreter between his Yankee slange and Tennessee colloquialism. He enjoyed boating on Tellico Lake, playing gold on beautiful TN courses, traveling and watching UT Football.

A service to Celebrate the Life of Leo will be held 4:30pm Friday at Click Funeral Home Farragut Chapel with a reception to immediately follow next door at Milestones Event Center. Graveside service will be 10am Saturday at Washington Presbyterian Church Cemetery with full military honors conferred by Volunteer State Veterans Honor Guard and the US Army. In lieu of flowers, please make memorials to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital www.stjude.org