Ioannis Theofanidis
Ioannis Theofanidis was a Greek Navy officer and scholar.
After studies in the Hellenic Navy Academy, Theofanidis served during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and the Balkan Wars, finally retiring as a Rear Admiral in 1923.
Having taught history in the Navy Academy, Theofanidis dedicated himself to historical research thereafter, editing publishing the archives of his wife's great-great-grandfather, the hero of the Greek Revolution Theodoros Kolokotronis, studies on the history of the Greek Navy in the periods 1824–26 and 1909–13, on the downfall of Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo and on his campaign in Syria against Sir Sidney Smith.
In the 1920s he came across and became obsessed with the study of the Antikythera mechanism, selling off family property to finance his research into reconstructing a model of the device. He published a first set of his findings in 1934, but most of his work remained unpublished and unknown after his death.
With his wife, Aikaterini Ioannidou, he had two children, a daughter Elli and a son, Iason, who also became a naval officer.
