Anatole “Tony” Kurkov

Anatole “Tony” Kurkov, born on March 29, 1936, passed away on January 13, 2025. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marina, his daughters Katherine (Todd) and Elizabeth (Chandler), and grandchildren Lucy and Finn Tyrrell. Tony was born in Yugoslavia, less than 40 miles from where Marina lived, though the two first met in Ann Arbor, where they were both working on their PhDs. He was 21 when he came to the United States with his parents and twin brother, Victor, having studied engineering at the University of Belgrade. Tony continued his education at NYU while sweeping floors on Wall Street and learning English.

At the University of Michigan, Tony received fellowships and eventually ended up at NASA (Lewis, now Glenn) where he worked for over 35 years. His grandson, Finn, treasures a toy replica of the space shuttle Columbia, an early mission that Grandpa Toady (as his grandkids called him) worked on.

Tony, a dedicated long-distance runner, was a familiar sight in his Rocky River neighborhood and in the Cleveland Metroparks, where he ran daily for nearly 50 years. He competed in many marathons, including the Boston Marathon (twice), and the Columbus Marathon, where he achieved his top time of 2:47. In his spare time, Tony also enjoyed photography, taking numerous photos on family camping trips over the years. His daughters, Kat and Lisa, inherited his talent for photography, as did grandkids Lucy and Finn. 

As anyone who ever met Tony will remember, computers were one of his main passions in life. He could talk to anyone anywhere (for as long as they would listen!) about computers and programming. His kindness, quirky sense of humor, and dedication to the things he loved will be greatly missed. 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made to the Challenger Center to support STEM programs for students (https://challenger.org/support-us/), the UN Refugee Agency (https://www.unhcr.org/us/ways-donate), or Let Me Run, a running program for boys (https://letmerun.org/donate). 

[Photo: This photograph of Tony was taken in a NASA wind tunnel in the early 1980s. He used to run it late at night when electricity was more available.]