The PowerKnights are sad to announce the passing of a former mechanical parent mentor. John Slebodnick joined our team in 2004 and stayed on after his son’s graduation to help with robot build. In 2008 John injured his back and was not able to help out after that. We named our 2009 Lunacy robot “Slebodnick” in his honor. One of our former mentors Jefferson Hall remembers him fondly, “John helped in any way he could, but mostly he was one of our expert machinists and all around nice guy. He taught me a lot about turning handles in that machine shop. He had a canny mechanical mind and was a major contributor to the team’s success during that time.”
John’s obituary can be read here