Michael N. Mallis, a former chemical engineer who later became a businessman, died Jan. 11 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson of complications from flu that led to heart failure. He was 90.
The son of Nick Mallis, who owned the Shipyard Restaurant in Sparrows Point, and Eugenia Mallis, a homemaker, Michael Nicholas Mallis was born and raised in Sparrows Point.
After graduating in 1941 from City College, he earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1944; he earned a master's degree from Hopkins in 1946. He completed all of the Ph.D. requirements in chemical engineering but never sat for his orals, said a daughter, Constance "Dina" Klicos of the Hampton neighborhood of Towson.
During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of the atomic bomb. He later was a chemical engineer at the Naval Gun Factory in Washington.
In 1953, Mr. Mallis established the Industrial Food Co., which provided food trucks that traveled throughout Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant.
In the mid-1950s, he started City Vending Co., and three years later he was a founding partner of Michantons at Eastpoint, a restaurant. He merged Shipyard Restaurant, Industrial Food Co. and City Vending Co. with Servomation Corp. in 1966.
Servomation was acquired by Service America Corp., where Mr. Mallis served as Mid-Atlantic president. One of his accounts was managing food service for the House of Representatives. He retired in 1991.
A Hampton resident, Mr. Mallis was a 33rd-degree Mason and had been a Mason for 67 years. He was a member of the Scottish Rite and in 1982 served as potentate of the Boumi Temple.
Mr. Mallis was a member and volunteer at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, where he oversaw its relationship with Martin's West and the Annunciation Orthodox Center.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday at his church, 25 W. Preston St.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Mallis is survived by his wife of 67 years, the former Mary Grivakis; a son, Nicholas Mallis of Fallston; two other daughters, Jeanne Caminis of Hampton and Magda Osburne of Franklin, Tenn.; a sister, Bessie M. Butanis of Bel Air; 10 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.