Dr. Theodore (Ted) Skokos

Dr. Theodore Skokos passed away Thursday, January 05, 2017, in Fort Smith. He was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to Angela Menedes and Sarantos (Sering) Skokos on July 11, 1920. He would say 7/11 was a lucky day. At age 11, his family moved to the famous seaside resort of Asbury Park, New Jersey, where his father opened a bustling hamburger joint across the street from the boardwalk.

He attended Washington and Jefferson College on a basketball scholarship and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Dental School in Philadelphia, where Betty was a Navy officer decoding messages. After meeting at a soda fountain, they went for one dance at a Nickelodeon, and she knew he was the one for her.

Their marriage in 1945 was blessed by the Archbishop Athenagoras, who had come to Asbury Park to conduct Ted's father's funeral. Athenagoras would later become the Archbishop of Instanbul, supreme in the Greek Orthodox Church.

After being stationed in postwar Germany as a captain in the Army, Ted and Betty moved to Fort Smith, across the river from her hometown of Van Buren, where they raised five children. He practiced dentistry for fifty years.

Ted became very active in the community, serving as school board president and most proudly, founding and leading the Church League baseball program, now with eight ballfields (the second of which was named in his honor), and participation of over a thousand children a year. He received Fort Smith's most prestigious honor, the annual Golden Deeds award of the local Exchange Club.

Like the town's ambassador, Ted served as marshal on the 18th green, during the ten years of the local Nationwide PGA tour event. He delighted children for years playing Santa Claus at the Boys' Club, and he entertained crowds as referee of Harlem Magicians basketball games. This led to his appearing on a nationwide telecast of ABC's Wide World of Sports. Remarkably, he nailed a 30-foot shot live, after having been unable to sink a single one in pre-game taping. The camera crew followed him backing down the court, a novel reaction shot for that time, as he grinned ear-to-ear in disbelief.

Over the years he would book numerous marquee names of the big band era for the Fort Smith Cotillion dance club, among them Glenn Miller, Stan Kenton and Count Basie.

Ted was preceded in death by his wife, Jennie Elizabeth (Betty) Campbell Skokos last March; and by his brother, George of Asbury Park, his sister, Connie of Huntsville, Alabama; and his brother, Pete of Freehold, New Jersey.

He is survived by five children, Ted C. Skokos and his wife Shannon of Dallas, Leslie Cange and her husband Bill of Greers Ferry, Dr. Kemp Skokos and his wife Tawnya of Little Rock, Doug Skokos of Fort Smith, and Stacia (Shuggie) Peebles and her husband Brent of Decatur, Alabama; ten grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren.