Remembering Michael Shandor
Michael Shandor was born at home on June 27, 1920 in St. Clair, PA. His father was a coal miner supporting his wife and nine children. Michael was the middle child of seven boys and two girls. An uncle sent him to St. Procopius College in Lisle, IL. Michael continued his education at The University of Chicago and Penn State.
After work on the Manhattan Project, he returned home to St. Clair and married Elizabeth Slepecky, with whom he had graduated high school. They were married in 1947 at St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church by Fr. Andrew Slepecky, Elizabeth’s father, and moved to Maryland in 1950 for Michael’s work at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
With their first two children, Michael Gregory and Andrea Elizabeth, they moved from an apartment in Silver Spring, Md. to a more rural area in the same county where Nina Maria was born in 1956.
At the Applied Physics Lab, Mr. Shandor was supporting operations in the Thrust Vector Control program. He later transferred to the Aeronautics Department where he operated a blowdown air rocket test facility. He also established a laser facility and helped to develop the first high-pressure chemical laser. As a section supervisor within the Propulsion Group, he managed the programming safety, administration, and upgrades of the Avery Propulsion Research Laboratory for half of his 41 years of service, retiring in 1991 at age 71.
The Shandor family attended St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Mr. Shandor served in the altar until age 90. He was on the Board of Trustees (now Parish Council) for three decades. He was a teacher and later became supervisor of the Sunday School for years after his children were school-aged.
Mr. Shandor established the St. Nicholas Book and Icon Service in the 1960’s, which expanded from a glass-front counter and bookshelf in the church hall to an entire room in the church annex at the Annual Bazaar. Many seekers and catechumens found materials there for their education in Orthodoxy. The sales counter closed when the St. Nicholas Gift Corner opened in the church hall, but the Book and Icon Room at the Bazaar remained active until Mr. Shandor’s death in 2010. Michael Shandor was officially ordained subdeacon in his late 80’s, although he had served in that capacity with the Metropolitan’s blessing since the 1970’s. He fell asleep in the Lord on September 18, 2010 at the age of 90, well regarded in his beloved parish and the archdiocese of Washington.
Outside of the church, Mr. Shandor was active in his son’s boy scout troop, and tended a large vegetable garden which included prize-winning gladioli. He jogged two miles per day and worked out with weights until his mid-80’s. He enjoyed classical music, the many museums in Washington, and practicing calligraphy.
