Demosthenes Michalakis

Demosthenes Nikolaos Michalakis, (Jim) 87 of Olathe, passed away on October 20, 2020 at home.
He was born on June 10, 1933 to Nikolaos and Kleo (Panourias) Michalakis in Archarnae, Greece, outside of Athens.

He entered the Royal Greek Airforce and attended "Stia" before serving for 10 years as an Artillery Specialist. He was sent to Ft. Bliss, TX in 1958 as part of a NATO program to learn about missiles. He met Carmen Minjarez in 1959 and they were married before he returned to Greece to complete his service.

Jim returned to the U.S. in 1963 and became a naturalized citizen in 1966. He was very proud of his U.S. citizenship and believed the U.S. to be the best country in the world.

Jim and Carmen lived all over the world and they raised three daughters.

Jim worked for different tech companies on Okinawa, Portugal, Germany, Saudia Arabia and Washington D. C. He was proud of the fact that he had collected data for NASA at Goddard in MD. He eventually worked for the federal government in Washington D.C. as a Quality Assurance Engineer for the General Services Agency. He transferred to KC and retired from GSA in 2002.

He loved to wear cowboy boots and shoot guns. He enjoyed wood carving, wood working, collecting and polishing rocks, talking about history, geography and science. He spoke Greek, Spanish and English fluently and some Albanian and Portuguese. Jim and Carmen loved to dance and have fun. Jim loved to joke and tell stories.

Jim is survived by his three daughters and son-in-law, Carmelita Michalakis (Hotz), Katherine and Kevin Pavel and Kleonikki Michalakis and seven grandchildren; Justin, Nick, Robbie, Mich, Rico, Natalia and Jacque.