Anthony (Tony) Glavan

Anthony (Tony) Glavan died on June 23 at his residence in Kingsport in the company of his family after a presumed catastrophic stroke.  He was 91.  He is survived by his daughter, Joni Sago (Brett) and two grandchildren, Anna and Mark, of Kingsport, Tennessee.  He is also survived by a hilarious sister Marilyn Smith of Biwabik, MN, and numerous nieces and nephews who he loved and cherished.  

Tony grew up in Northern Minnesota where he would ski the road’s snowbanks while being towed by a car.  He loved funerals because he would get out of high school and earn a few pennies working at the service.  He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin and completed all of his coursework with a slide rule. 

He entered the US Air Force in 1953 and had an impressive career:  he water-skied off the coast of Libya in front of a crowd of onlookers who had never seen water-skis.  He supervised the installation of an emergency communication center in Key West during the Cuban missile crisis.  He volunteered to serve in Vietnam, where he commanded the 1882nd Communications Squadron.  His last assignment was at the Pentagon, where we worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  During his years of military service, he earned two Master’s degrees: an MBA from the University of Chicago and an MS in System Management from the University of Southern California. He retired to San Antonio, Texas where he started his second career for the State of Texas, supervising their transition to fiber-optic telecommunications.  If you made a successful call out of a state office building in Austin in those days, you could thank Tony.  He retired from that in 1998 and began his third and final career, driving members of his church to medical appointments and dialysis.

In 2006, he relocated to Kingsport, TN,  to spoil his grandchildren.  He was known for having “Danimals” yogurt and oatmeal raisin cookies in a refrigerated pack in his car at all times in case Anna or Mark couldn’t make the 3 mile drive home from preschool without a snack. In Kingsport, Tony loved his church family at St. Dominic’s parish and frequently brought his engineering skills to many volunteer opportunities. He was also grateful for the staff and fellow exercisers at the Great Body Company, where he lifted weights until the day before he died. 

Tony’s family would like to add their thanks to the loving, devoted caregivers from Care Central who managed him gracefully as his descent into dementia turned him into “Grumpy Grandpa,” a state he would not have recognized. 

Arrangements for the funeral mass are set for St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Kingsport on July 23, 2022 at 10 am with inurnment immediately afterward in the St. Dominic’s columbarium. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to the charities of your choice (or buy cookies for someone you love in his honor).