Constantine Arabadjis, age 89, of 35 Chestnut Street, Charlestown, Massachusetts passed away on Tuesday, March 21 after living with Alzheimer’s for nearly a decade.
Gus, as he was known to family and friends, was born on August 16, 1933 in Manhattan to Despina (née Vandris) who had emigrated from Thessaloniki, Greece and George Arabadjis who had emigrated from Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey. The family moved to Queens after a few years where Gus grew up and earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Queens College. While still in his second year of graduate study at Columbia University, Gus accepted a job at General Electric in Syracuse, and he relocated to upstate New York.
It was in his second year at GE that he met and (two years later) married Mary Ann Sagert, and together they raised a family of six children in the town of Camillus. During this time Gus earned two master’s degrees from Syracuse University - one in electrical engineering and one in computer science, and was active in local politics and activist causes. Gus developed a reputation for his unusually clear explanations of solutions to complex mathematical problems and consequently was invited to teach a course on Kalman Filters in the company’s in-house master’s degree program where he became a favorite instructor of many of those enrolled in the Advanced Course. Gus loved teaching as much as he loved solving problems, and became an adjunct professor at Syracuse University and later Northeastern University. Upon his retirement from GE after 34 years, Gus accepted a position at Mitre in Bedford, Massachusetts, and he and Mary Ann relocated to Charlestown.
Gus had a longtime interest in photography that dated back to his high school years, and he organized and filled many albums of family vacations and activities. He loved living in Boston where there was easy access to museums, concerts, and the theater. He and Mary Ann became world travelers inspired in part by their back to back extended stays in Sydney, Australia and Paris, France while Gus was still working at GE. Mary Ann’s longtime love of travel eventually led the couple to join a group who would travel each year to London for an intensive two week immersion into London’s theater scene, a trip they participated in every year for over two decades.
Gus loved many forms of music and introduced his children to classical and folk music at an early age. The entire family regularly attended Sunday afternoon Syracuse Symphony concerts at the local high school. And it was not uncommon for singing to be heard around the dinner table after the family had finished eating. Gus also had a mischievous nature. He invented words and would often challenge his children with explanations that involved both humor and fantasy. Gus remained a gentle soul up to the very end and would express his gratitude for even the smallest of actions taken on his behalf when he could no longer care for himself.
Gus is survived by his wife Mary Ann (85) with whom he recently celebrated their 63rd anniversary; his six children Michael (62) and his wife Mo Scheible, Christopher (62) and his husband Timothy Liu, Peter (61) and his wife Lisa Buck, Elizabeth (59) and her husband John Kribs, John (57) and his wife Kenza Mouahidi, and Alexandra (53); his ten grandchildren Graham Hoopingarner, Andreá and her husband Ryan Bristol, Ian and his wife Kathleen, Sophia and her fiancé Ben Callaway, Isaac and his girlfriend Kim Stager, Hannah and her husband Jeffrey Phung, Eva Salmon, Zachary Salmon, Jonah Salmon, and Tobias Salmon; and by his late brother John Aris’s wife Eva and their children William and Diane.