John N. Proakis

For over 38 years, John Proakis serviced television sets in Baltimore and was known to many as Mr. Lane and “the TV Man” from Lane TV. Even as years passed, people who recognized him stopped him to recount when he serviced their television set. Although he may not have remembered their last name, he knew the television set and model, the repair work he did and what room it was in.

Born on September 14, 1923 in Weirton, West Virginia [also referred to as “God’s Country”] he was the youngest of five children born of Nick and Fotini Proakis. With no work available in Weirton, he moved to Baltimore after he graduated from Weir High in 1942 and worked as an electrician for Sparrows Point Shipyard.

In May 1946, he entered the United States Navy where he served on the USS W. R. Rush for two years. While on the destroyer, he was known for running the movies on the ship and being sea sick every day.

In 1950, after graduating from the New York Technical Institute, he married Marion (nee Zubulis) and in 1951 their daughter, Barbara, was born. Several years later his wife passed away from a terminal illness.

With a keen interest in radio and television he worked for Muntz TV where he met Henry Harris, who became a lifelong friend and partner when they realized they could perform repair work on their own. In 1950, Lane TV was opened by the two men on Sinclair Lane where John quickly was known to his customers and their children as Mr. Lane and “the TV Man”. For over 38 years, the two men worked together until Henry wanted to retire and John had open heart surgery.

Although the shop was closed, many former customers called on John at his home to see if “Mr. Lane” could repair their television. His son-in-law remembers going to his work in 1996 when an employee talked about their television set not working correctly. “Jokingly, I said call my father-in-law.” After telling the employee his name, she said “the TV Man!”

In August 1958, friends of Helen Sourlis who lived in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania and who knew of John Proakis in Weirton, convinced her to go on a blind date. Helen said no. But she changed her mind after her mother made her feel bad. She first saw John walking down the stairs in his family home in a blue-striped seer sucker suit. She was not happy, but went along to the Moose Lodge for a social gathering, where John taught Helen how to gamble on a slot machine. “We didn’t win much, but I thought he was ‘ok’” remembered Helen. Being the gentleman he was John asked her father for permission to date.

He proposed to Helen following the Billy Eckstein performance and they were married in November that year. “To this day, I have all of the letters he sent me while we were dating. Each had a twig of lavender in it. He was such the romantic!”

In July 1963 their son Michael was born and in July 1966 their daughter Christina was born. His children recall how they never had a new television set until recently. “He fixed every television we ever had, so he never saw a need to buy a new one” recalled his children. In fact, his oldest daughter Barbara remembered how upset she was with her father, a television repairman, that he didn’t buy a color television when they first came out. “I had to go to our upstairs bathroom window and look across the street into the neighbor’s living room to see the colors shine from their new set.”

John was a member of the Scottish Rite and admitted a Noble in the Bhoumi Shrine where he participated in their bowling league until he was in his late seventies. At various times, he played basketball including years with the Saint Nicholas Church team and once a week with neighbors who gathered at the local elementary school. He loved to golf with family members who remembered how John picked up any golf ball left behind on the course. Dozens and dozens of egg cartons are in his basement filled with these balls.

He loved working in the yard, mowing a manicured lawn, growing vegetables, making sure his gardenia bloomed, the peacefulness of the mountains of West Virginia, and his cousin’s hunting lodge in Pennsylvania. Over the past five years he enjoyed a vacation with his family and granddaughter at the beach and eating steamed crabs.

In addition to fixing televisions, John fixed anything and everything brought to him - watches, purses, lawn mowers, radios, 8 track tapes and ice makers. He put everyone else first visiting family and friends at their homes and as they aged in hospitals and nursing homes. He would spend time talking with a person and then moved on to someone else or to run "an errand". In fact, the day before he passed away, he finished fixing the ice maker on his own refrigerator.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years Helen (nee Sourlis), his daughter Barbara Shearer and her husband Richard, a son Michael Proakis, his daughter Christina Constantinou and her husband Peter, his cherished granddaughter Marina, the beloved brother of Alice Cianos and godfather to his goddaughters.

The family will receive friends in the Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley, Inc., 10 W. Padonia Road (at York Road) Timonium, MD 21093 on Tuesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9PM, with a Trisagion service at 7:45PM.

Mr. Proakis will lie in state at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, 24 W. Preston Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 on Wednesday, October 2 from 10:30 to 11AM at which time a funeral service will be celebrated 11AM. Interment Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers contributions may be directed in Mr. Proakis’ memory to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, 24 W. Preston Street, Baltimore, MD 21201