John Stavros Colonias

John Stavros Colonias – Born June 8, 1928, In Athens Greece to Michael Stavros Colonias and Evangeline Marco Colonias, John passed away peacefully in his sleep on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025. John graduated from the Greek Military Academy as a Second Lieutenant and served with the U.N. forces in Korea, where he was awarded a Bronze Star for his heroic service by the U.S. Armed forces.
In the mid 1950's John received a Fulbright Scholarship and moved to the United States to study at Oregon State University, earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He married Becky Chambers, and they had two children, John and Beth, both of whom he adored and remained close to throughout his long life. He shifted his focus to experimental nuclear physics and worked at Lawrence Berkeley Labs for nearly 30 years in the most sensitive classified programs doing important work on Star Wars and other Top Secret projects, some of which remain classified. John was offered a fellowship at CERN Laboratories in Switzerland, the largest particle accelerator in the world, where he spent a year with his family. He enjoyed living in Europe with his young children, attributing his son's love of skiing to living in Switzerland when he was growing up. Once home, John wrote Particle Accelerator Design: Computer Programs, published in 1974, which was widely considered the definitive book on the subject until several decades later. During his time at Berkeley, John was invited by Nobel physicist Kai Seigbhan to study at the Institute of Physics at Uppsala University in Sweden, where he earned his Ph.D. and married his second wife, Irene Jansson who had four children who became a part of his life, Kent, Tommy, Stephan, and Anders. In the late 1980's John moved to Mississippi where he became the Chief Scientist for MTel Corporation. He later married his last wife, Lisa, and raised his second son, Graham.
John viewed life as a grand adventure and was an avid traveler. Along with some friends from Berkeley, he had traveled down to the Ecuadorian rainforest. During this daring trip, John fell into the Amazon River and almost drowned. Throughout his life he displayed a collection of blow guns, darts, and primitive weapons he was gifted while on this trip as a reminder. John also had a life-long love of stamp collecting. He was an expert in 19th century British Empire stamps and had been collecting since he was a child back in Greece.
John was passionate about education, believing that education was the key to success. He had an uncanny ability to see the potential in people and, many times believed in others before they would believe in themselves. The people he impacted by his teaching and mentoring is John's lasting legacy, and one that makes his family proud. In 2018, he created the Colonias-Jansson Foundation at Uppsala University, so that this legacy will continue for generations to come.
John is survived by his three children, Beth, John (Karen), and Graham (Caroline), several nieces and nephews, and numerous grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers the family is requesting donations to Gateway Rescue Mission in Jackson. The link to donate is here: gatewaymission.org/donate/ To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of John, please visit our floral store.