John Jeffery Andrianos, 68, of Fredericksburg, Va., died on March 10, 2025.
The oldest child of Chris and Bessie (Maroules) Andrianos, John was the devoted husband of Evelyn (Meurer), a dedicated father to John Meurer (Buckhannon, W.Va.) and Tina Meurer (Fredericksburg, Va.), and a doting “Papou” to Aria Sandi. He was a dear brother to sister Ellen Linebaugh (David; Marietta, Ga.), and brothers James (Andrea Gahl; Seattle, Wash.) and Christopher (Karla Maloof; Palisades, NY).
John grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Penn., outside of Pittsburgh. In high school, he was attracted to technical drawing. This became a throughline for a decades-long career in drafting and computer-aided design, including the past 20 years at ISM Services, Inc.
After high school in the late 1970s, with his brawny frame, full black beard, and cultivated “fro”, many Pittsburghers came to believe they had just encountered Steeler running back Franco Harris.
A few years later, he met and married Evelyn. A memorable riverboat wedding reception launched their union, and last year they celebrated their 32nd anniversary. They quickly became a team, working on cars, renovating their home, and even lived for a few years on a farm. Always doing things together, Evelyn called John “her better half”, to which John would come back with “no, that’s you.”
Evelyn’s children, John and Tina, quickly became John’s own. And in 2013, Tina welcomed Aria into the world. Aria became John’s treasure, and he was ever after her beloved “Papou”. Aria was her Papou’s helper when she visited. Whether it was fixing the bathroom sink, power washing the house or shoveling snow, they were inseparable.
Tales of his natural strength and bearing are legion. At Thanksgiving, John once astonished all when he stepped in and butterflied the turkey — with his bare hands.
During the past decade, John endured a bewildering series of major illnesses and treatments. His steadfastness in the face of these relentless, mystifying adversities became a model for others. Indeed, he overcame advanced cancer amid the height of the pandemic. But other maladies followed, and in the end, it was all too much.
A gentle giant, always quick with a joke or a story, and a stalwart representative of Steeler Nation in the Commonwealth of Virginia, John was in equal measures loyal, industrious, and caring.
His life recalls the words of novelist George Eliot, “The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
The family will receive friends from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at Found and Sons Funeral Chapel, 10719 Courthouse Road, Fredericksburg. A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, March 19, 2025 in the funeral home chapel. Burial will follow in Quantico National Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that expressions of sympathy take the form of donations in John’s memory to the American Cancer Society.
