James C. Sakes, Navy Pilot, 85, Washington Post r
DGH
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/AR2010011203568_2.html
James C. Sakes Navy Pilot, Hotelier
James C. Sakes, 85, a retired Navy lieutenant commander who later worked for
Holiday Inn then managed the Kennedy Warren apartment house in Northwest
Washington, died Dec. 29 [2009] at his home in the District. He had
complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's
disease.
Cmdr. Sakes served in the Navy for 20 years before working for Holiday Inn
from 1963 to 1983, opening and managing hotels in the U.S. and overseas. He
managed hotels in Sarasota, Fla., and Minneapolis, was district manager of
Holiday Inn properties in Morocco then took control of the Holiday Inn in
Gaithersburg in 1976.
The seven-room presidential suite there, which was built in 1972 to lure
celebrity guests who performed at the Shady Grove Music Fair, rented for
$1,400 per night, which was staggering for a room that overlooked a Sam's
Club discount warehouse.
The "world's most expensive hotel room," as it was billed, had 24-hour
chauffeur and maid service, Chippendale furniture, gold-plated dolphin
fixtures in the bathroom, a $ 3,700 Chinese rug, a circular bed that could
tilt and rotate and a headboard with built-in taps of scotch and water,
bourbon and soda, and martinis.
"It was ornate. . . . It was kind of overwhelming, you might say, for a
motel facility," Cmdr. Sakes told The Washington Post in 2002. "It had all
those furnishings, and it had that big tub." Stars such as Cher, Rock
Hudson, Engelbert Humperdinck, Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, Perry Como, Redd Foxx,
Liberace, Joan Rivers and Imelda Marcos were guests, but no members of the
world's royalty.
"No, we didn't have any of that," Cmdr. Sakes said. "Why would they come to
Gaithersburg?"
Born in Washington, James Constantine Sakellariades graduated from Eastern
High School in 1943 and enlisted in the Navy. He became a naval aviator and
flew in a fighter-bomber squadron. He received two Distinguished Flying
Crosses and five Air Medals while participating in 25 wartime missions, two
of them over Tokyo.
After the war ended, he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in
hotel administration. He stayed on active duty until 1963, then switched to
the Navy Reserve for 20 more years while working as a hotelier. He left the
Holiday Inn organization in 1983 and began managing the Kennedy Warren for
the next five years.
A son, Matthew Sakes, died in 1984.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Betty Jane Sakes of Washington; a
son, Gregory Sakes of Arlington; and two grandsons.
--
Patricia Sullivan