Fotini Kladakis Menemenlis

Fotini Kladakis Menemenlis, daughter of Nikitas and Andromahi Kladakis, left this world at home peacefully in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday, May 31, 2024, at the age of 95. 

Fotini was born in Piraeus, Greece, in 1928, grew up on the island of Symi and attended four years of Italian high school on the island of Rhodes, during the Italian occupation. She continued her education by getting a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.  She was the first woman electrical engineer to graduate from the school.  Fotini worked for the Hellenic Public Power Corporation for twenty years.  

In 1969, two years after the Greek military coup, she was forced to emigrate to Montreal, Canada, with her husband and her four children.  In Montreal, while working as an engineer and raising her children, she pursued her studies and received a second master’s degree in Engineering from Concordia University. She worked as an electrical engineer at SNC-Lavalin engineering company.   She was involved in many projects overseas, mainly in Africa where she designed and built electrical substations.

Fotini was a lively and adventurous person, devoted to her children and grand children, and always helping people in need. She undertook everything with extreme passion. Later in life, she authored numerous books written in Greek, about her family’s life experiences and travels around the world.  

Fotini will be missed by her sister, Eleni; her four children and their spouses, Liana (Sean), Nickie (Ouri), Dimitris (Kate) and Christiana (David); her 10 grandchildren; and her three great grandchildren.

Fotini will be remembered at a memorial service which will take place at St Anne’s Shrine on Isle La Motte in Vermont at 11:00 AM on Saturday, August 10, 2024. Interment will follow in Vermont’s South Alburgh Cemetery, next to her late husband of fifty-six years, Christos Menemenlis, whom she survived by sixteen years.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Lake Champlain Committee’s working endowment fund. You can use the link provided or contact LCC Executive Director Lori Fisher (802-658-1421) or Alexa Hachigian (802-658-1414) to discuss making a contribution in memory of Fotini Menemenlis.  

Fotini and Christos spent much of their adult life together in their little cottage on the shores of Lake Champlain, which they loved very much. May they rest in peace, together and forever, on that very shore! By making a donation to the Legacy Fund, you help protect the lake, now and in the future.