Emanuel N. Logothetis died peacefully on July 22, 2023 at his Atlantis, Florida home. He was 93

Manny Logothetis was born on March 10, 1930, in Newark New Jersey as the son of refugees from Greece- Nicolas and Anastasia Logothetis. He grew up in the city along with his two brothers Anthony and James. 

Manny was an inveterate tinkerer with electronics from a very young age. At 14 years old, he opened his own small storefront in downtown Newark where he specialized in the repair of radios which was the most popular form of communication in those days.

Later, he attended Newark College of Engineering at night and continued to study mechanics as well. In 1949, he met Helen Drinis at a church function and shortly thereafter he asked her to be his wife. In 1950 the Korean War broke out and he received a draft notice and to report to Fort Dix within 2 weeks. Soon after the notice, he quickly married Helen in a civil ceremony fearing he would not return and he wanted her to have veteran widow benefits. After reporting for duty, the Army learned he had the rare skill of repairing radios and other electronics which were then used extensively in war. He never saw combat and spent his tour repairing hundreds of handheld battlefield electronics.

After release from the army in late 1951, he remarried Helen in a church ceremony and moved into her parents' house in Newark, NJ. During the first 7 years of their marriage, they had three children: Nick, Steven, and Julie and later moved to Hillside NJ and finally Short Hills, NJ.

Following the birth and early years of their children, Manny's entrepreneurial spirit was unleashed. In 1964, he started a side business of building scale models of new industrial factories such as chemical plants, refineries, etc. In those days before computers, engineers needed models to check for potential construction problems and design errors. In 1965, he branched out into a full-time engineering and construction business based in New Jersey--Joule Engineering.

Joule was the base and start of his 50-year career in expanding and diversifying into several markets and business lines. He added a temporary staffing company, an oil refinery maintenance company, and a printing company. In 1980, he purchased Kahle Engineering, a production and automation machinery company based in Italy. A few years after that, he purchased the Solartron solar collector division of General Electric. In the early eighties, Joule developed expertise in aerospace technology and became a Top-50 contractor to NASA the space agency. During this period, Joule employees participated in many historical events. Joule engineers were stationed around the world tracking the STS (commonly known as the "Space Shuttle") on the very first flights. They also built rocket components and worked in weather and atmospheric monitoring. Later, Joule expanded to operating military bases and participated in logistics for Operation Desert Storm and other projects.

By the mid-eighties, Joule had over 1000 employees and in 1986 the company went public on the American Stock Exchange. At that time, Kahle Engineering was spun off into a separate private company and today is a major worldwide manufacturer of medical product assembly machinery. In the second year as a public company, Business week magazine ranked Joule as one of the 50 Best Small Companies in America.

In the last decade, Joule reverted to a  private company and was purchased in its entirety by the private equity firm MidOcean Partners.

Manny retired from his business after the final sale and he and Helen moved fulltime to their home in Atlantis, Florida. He stayed active in his three church memberships and was an Archon of the Greek Orthodox Church and a Leadership 100 contributor. He also continued an interest in golf and belonged to three golf clubs.

On December 9, 2021, Helen and Manny celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with friends in Palm Beach. Helen passed away on November 10, 2022-one month before their next anniversary. They are survived by their three children; Nick, Steven and spouse Chris, Julie and spouse John, and three grandchildren: Steven, Brittany, and Casey.

Manny will be reunited with Helen at the Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.

Viewing and Funeral will be held on Thursday, July 27, 2023 at 10:00 am at

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church

250 Gallows Hill Road

Westfield, NJ 07090

In lieu of flowers or cards, the family request contributions be sent-

In Memory of the Reunification of Manny and Helen Logothetis

Saint Mark Church – Boca Raton

2100 NW 51st Street

Boca Raton, FL 33431

www.saintmarkboca.net 

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/emanuel-logothetis/obituary/

Copy