Tony John Stathos

Stathos, Tony J. born on January 15, 1928 in Sacramento, California to parents that emigrated to the US from Greece between 1900 and 1920. Tony attended Sacramento High School and graduated June 6, 1945. He attended one semester at Sacramento Junior College and then entered into the Air Force on January 28, 1946 and completed boot camp in San Antonio, Texas. He then later went on to complete Radar School in Boca Raton, Florida. After completing school, he then became stationed at Mather Air Force Base and was accepted into Aviation Cadet Training and completed cadets in the class of 48-C. He was also the last class of cadets to complete primary PT-17 Stearmans. He also completed Barksdale, B-25 training. After graduation he spent one year at McClellan Air Force Base as a Flight Test Maintenance Pilot and was fortunate enough to fly many different types of aircraft. In October of 1949, he was sent to Guam to Captain a B-29. On June 25, 1950 he was then sent to Okinawa and participated in the first air raid over Korea. In March of 1951, he left Okinawa and was assigned to Roswell, New Mexico, again piloting the B-29. In April of that same year, he met his future wife, Mary, and then decided to not continue with a career in the military. On July 5, 1952, Mary and Tony were married and had a total of 5 children.

After the military, Tony attended Sacramento State and became a teacher for the next 10 years at Fruitridge Elementary School. During his teaching career, he attended McGeorge School of Law at night, where he later graduated Magna Cum Laude and spent the next 45 years as an attorney.

Tony is predeceased by his parents, two brothers, four sisters, and his son, Peter. He is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 61 years, Mary; his children Denise, Valerie, Perry and Pamela; 9 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. A visitation from 4-6pm will be held at Nicoletti, Culjis & Herberger Funeral Home on Friday, December 20, at 5401 Folsom Blvd with a Trisagion to follow at 7pm at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, December 21 at 10am at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church.