Skip to main content

Alec Petroulias, Engineer on Apollo Space Program

Thu, 05/06/2021 - 08:49

Alec Petroulias, an electrical engineer who worked on the Apollo space program in the 1960s, died of heart failure and cancer on April 10 at home in East Hampton. He was 91, and had been briefly ill. 

Mr. Petroulias enlisted in the Air Force in 1950, and was stationed at Camp Hero in Montauk. During that time, he met the former Patsy Kuykendall, a Springs resident who would become his wife on New Year's Eve in 1954. She survives.  

After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Houston, which he attended on a G.I. scholarship, Mr. Petroulias worked for Brown and Root, an industrial services company headquartered in Louisiana, on U.S. missile sites in Abilene, Tex. He worked at Grumman Aircraft during the launch of the Apollo program, helped develop nuclear energy in the 1970s, and later designed the runway lighting at La Guardia Airport.  

Born on March 2, 1930, in Kalamata, Greece, to Gregory Petroulias and the former Konstantina Yianacoupoulos, he grew up in Cambridge, Mass. He had lived in Springs for the past 57 years.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Jill Markolf of Cape Coral, Fla.; a son, John Petroulias of Eastport, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. 

 The family plans a private memorial service in September. Memorial contributions have been suggested to East End Hospice, online at eeh.org. 

 

 

 

Villages

Festival Doc Spurs Community Run

A group of filmmakers, runners, walkers, and spectators will meet at Gubbins Perfect Fit in East Hampton Friday at 8 a.m. for a community 5K run and walk to Main Beach and back that is connected to the Hamptons International Film Festival screening of the documentary “Remaining Native.”

Oct 9, 2025

Perfect Day for Big Clams

Unseasonably warm weather and the promise of hard clam delicacies including chowder, pies, and clams on the half shell drew what was likely the largest crowd in the history of the East Hampton Town Trustees’ annual Largest Clam Contest to the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station Museum.

Oct 9, 2025

ARF's 'Best Day in the Whole World'

The Animal Rescue Fund's Stroll to the Sea fund-raiser, the annual two-mile dog walk from Mulford Farm to Main Beach and back, will take place Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

Oct 9, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.