Leonard Michael Nagy

Leonard M. Nagy was born on 3/29/1936 and passed away on 09/30/2018. Len is survived by his wife of 62 years, Joan, and his daughters Laura of Cleveland OH, Lisa and her spouse Frans of Tucson AZ and Sharon of Greenville SC and a son, Mark of Washington DC. He was the loving grandfather of Ziad Nagy of London, England, and Ziad's mother Lina Wafa. His other beloved grandchildren are Nikolas and Talia Tax of Tucson AZ and Fiona, Quennie and Yana Madrid of Washington, DC. He was also the proud parent of the black Labrador, Blanca! Len led an incredibly rich life, full of travel, career success and an ever-evolving series of personal pursuits. He loved a mental and technical challenge, an orientation and passion that he very early on applied to rebuilding cars and that eventually led him to a career as an airline mechanic with Pan Am at Idlewild Airport (now JFK). As he advanced as a mechanic, the airline he took the opportunity to move to Germany to train mechanics on the newly released Boing 727. While Len and Joan only expected to be in Germany for one year, he remained overseas with Pan Am for over twenty years moving from maintenance to operations and management and from Frankfurt, to Tehran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and back to Germany, to Berlin this time. This career trajectory was fueled by Len's commitment to education and personal growth. Alongside his family and work responsibilities, Len worked and studied part-time toward a college degree. In 1975, at age 39., Len earned a bachelor's degree in Business Management and Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland. This was the same year that his oldest daughter, Laura, completed high-school. Len was always supportive and encouraging of all those he worked with, supervised or came in contact with in other ways. He supported the career aspirations of his employees and colleagues helping many of them to advance. He created opportunities for his children and grandchildren to grow, learn, expand their horizons and choose their own paths. He was proud of all the accomplishments of his children and grandchildren. One might say that he can brag of 6 Bachelors, an MFA, 3 PhD's and many more degrees and accomplishments in progress. Len was a hard worker, a problem solver, life-long learner and citizen of the world. His life was punctuated by a series of deep dives into new interests and hobbies from coaching championship winning little league teams to photography, from the stock market to cooking (his tiramisu was to die for!). His children and grandchildren have been inspired by, and carry on, many of these interests. Mark and Ziad apply his hands-on technical skill in their crafts as carpenters and artists. All three daughters have lives committed to education and intellectual inquiry. There is no shortage of dance skill in the family, with Laura, Sharon, Fiona and Niko all avid dancers—some even a bit competitive about it (another trait he inspired). And, Lisa and Talia have certainly matched him in the kitchen. Open to new experiences, he took risks that others may not have had the courage to take. His life and his family were enriched by the experiences that resulted.