Daisy Poros of Columbus, Mississippi

March 10, 1928 - February 14, 2023

In memory of

DAISY ERO POROS

1928-2023

Daisy Ero Poros (née Raptelli) of Columbus, Mississippi and Petra, Lesvos, Greece, died on the morning of February 14, 2023 at the age of 94. She is survived by her two children, Maritsa Poros and John Poros, daughter-in-law, Leslie Stratyner, her grandchildren, Izzy and Raniero, and her sister, Polyniki Raptelli, of Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece. She had oceans of love for her family and had to know about her children and grandchildren every day. She will be remembered fondly for her big, infectious laugh, strong intellect, creativity, and independent-mindedness.

Daisy led a long and interesting life as a mathematician, writer, mother and grandmother, a life-long atheist, and believer in the goodness of human nature. She was born March 10, 1926 in the small village of Petra, Lesvos, Greece, and lived through the WWII Nazi occupation of the island and the Greek Civil War just after. Her first marriage was to the well-known painter, Orestes Kanellis, also from Lesvos. They divorced but remained friends until his death in 1979. Daisy excelled in Mathematics and went on to study at the University of Athens only one of four women in her cohort and against the wishes of the all male faculty, who didn’t think women should study math.

In 1958, she migrated to Boston, Massachusetts to pursue a Master’s degree in Mathematics. Her father had died just before the war and Daisy supported herself by tutoring students in math. Daisy didn’t know any English when she arrived in Boston. She had only learned French in school so English was much more of a challenge than math ever was and she held on to her strongly-accented English her whole life. The following year, she was joined in Boston by a fellow student from the University of Athens, Demetrios Poros, and they married in Their first child, John, was born in 1963 in Boston and their second child, Maritsa, was born in 1968 in Washington, D.C.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, Daisy worked as an applied mathematician in the aerospace industry, including for the Honeywell Corporation, Smithsonian Institution, Computer Sciences Corporation, NASA, and Applied Physics Lab (APL). She was most proud of her work at NASA and APL having contributed to research for the Voyager 2 Satellite, the Space Shuttle Program, and Hubble Space Telescope. Of late, she was excited by the photographs taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

She came to Columbus, Mississippi in 2005, after she had retired and divorced from her husband, Demetrios, to be near her son, John, her daughter-in-law, Leslie, and her grandchild Izzy, who was nearly three years old at the time. Daisy made many friends in Columbus. She was always recognized around town and surprised a good number of people with her ardent atheism. She greatly enjoyed living independently in her house on College Street. Maritsa and Raniero, her daughter and grandson, who live in New York City, loved visiting her there, spending time with her on her porch and laughing with her. Daisy loved the moon, the sun and the stars, lemons, and pomegranates. She longed to swim in the sea and watch the sun set in her home village of Petra. But, most of all, she loved her grandchildren, Izzy and Raniero, more than anything in the world. They will miss their “yiayia”.

* * * * * *

Daisy cared deeply about scientific research, space exploration, and women’s

equality. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that anyone wishing to

make a donation, donate to the Women and Girls Initiative at Women@NASA or

the Space Foundation in her memory.

https://www.joincake.com/memorial-pages/daisy-ero-

poros/#obituary?utm_source=direct-link

https://www.spacefoundation.org/donate/together/