Peppino Nickolas Vlannes

Peppino Nickolas Vlannes was born in Shreveport, Louisiana to Nickolas Panayiotes Vlannes and Henrietta Buccola Vlannes on November 09, 1919. He had three sisters, Christula, Rose, and Anastasia. He graduated from Saint John’s High School, Shreveport in 1936. His undergraduate studies were interrupted by World War II. Upon returning to Shreveport, he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from Centenary College, Shreveport. He subsequently received a Master of Science Degree in Chemistry from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. He did post-graduate studies at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. and also is a graduate of a multiplicity of Military, Civil Service, and Technical Schools, seminars and courses.

Peppino met his wife, Katherine Batzis (Lieutenant, United States Army), in January 1946 shortly after her arrival in Tokyo, Japan, following World War II. They were married in June of 1949 at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York. They have two cherished and loving children, son Nickolas (Nick) and daughter Katherine (Katina). During his life, he was involved in church, educational, and civic activities and organizations. Peppino and Katherine, are founding members of Saint Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church, Falls Church, Virginia.

Peppino’s Military Service began during World War II when he entered the United States Army as a private in 1942. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Army Chemical Warfare Service in 1943. Following World War II, he was reassigned from the 82nd Chemical Mortar Battalion, Eleventh Corps Artillery to the newly activated Post Exchange Service in post-war Japan. He returned home as a Captain in 1946. Peppino joined the U.S. Army Reserve and was retired form the Active Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1972.

Peppino started his Civil Service career with The Eastern Experimental Station, Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior. He would continue in his Civil Service career in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with the Naval Research Laboratory; Office of the Chief Chemical Officer, Department of the Army (DoA); Army Research Office, DoA; Office of the Chief of Research and Development, DoA; and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He served as a member of: the Modern Methods Committee for Handling Chemical Information, National Academy of Science; The Numerical Data U.S. Metric Board; the Committee on Scientific and Technical Information, the Federal Council for Science and Technology; Federal Interagency Committee on Automation of Chemical Information and Data and on many other Federal Interagency Committees. The many projects that Peppino participated in during his career in the United States Government included new methods in chemical plating for aircraft landing gear; heat exchangers for the U.S. Navy submarines Seawolf and Nautilus; early computers and computer systems for developing new chemicals particularly for pharmaceuticals; networking of small computers for reconfigurable networks that allow for multiple and simultaneous uses and to perform the same functions as mainframe computers; electronic medical records using mainframe computers for hospitals; and electronic management of scientific and technical information and data. Peppino retired from NASA in 1981.



Peppino was a lecturer, teacher and co-author of many treatises, reports, studies and analyses before and subsequent to retirement. He was an inventor and recipient of several U.S. Patents. He received numerous awards, honors and recognitions, many in poetry. In addition to World War II awards, Peppino is the recipient of the U.S. Army’s Legion of Merit. He was a member of Reserve Officers Association (ROA); Military Officers Association of America; Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW); American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA); Southern Poetry Association (SPA); and International Society of Poets (ISP); The Poetry Society of Virginia (PSV), and Poets Anonymous. Peppino was elected to SPA’s “Who’s Who In Poetry” in 1993, is a recipient of ISP’s 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 International Poet of Merit Awards, and was elected to the International Poetry Hall of Fame in 1996. His poems have appeared in many outstanding anthologies including those of the SPA and the National Library of Poetry. He is the author of four anthologies, and has been recognized by the Virginia Commission for the Arts in their Writers In Virginia.