Obituary
Christopher John Styles, age 59, of Orlando, FL, passed away on September 16th, 2022 after a nine-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a beloved husband, father, brother, son, and uncle.
Chris was born on July 19th, 1963, to John and Diane Styles in Bowdon, GA. The family moved to Titusville in 1965 so that John could work for NASA. After Chris graduated from Astronaut High School in 1981, he went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. Upon graduating from UCF he started working for Lockheed Space Operations Company (LSOC), later known as Lockheed Martin Space Operations, which was the primary contractor for Shuttle Operations at the Kennedy Space Center. Later Chris worked for United Space Alliance (USA), and when the Shuttle Program closed down in 2011, he began working for Aerodyne Industries on the contract for the Artemis Program which included the new Space Launch System (SLS) as well as the Orion Crew Module. While Chris worked for several different contractors during his 35 years at KSC, he always worked on design for ground operations such as cranes, hoists, platforms, and elevators.
In 1996 he met the love of his life, Karen Biland, who would become his wife a year and a half later. Chris and Karen have two wonderful children, Andrea and Sally (“Mars”), who are 23 and 19 years old, respectively. Chris enjoyed traveling to Europe with his family as well as, more recently, visits to U.S. National Parks. In July/August, Chris and Karen visited Yosemite, Redwoods, and Olympic National Parks.
Chris is survived by his wife and children, as well as his mother Diane, sister Lesley Frazier (m. Barry), brother Scot Styles (m. Marisa), niece Heather, and nephew Ian. He was predeceased by his father John in 2001.
A celebration of Chris’ life will be held at Baldwin Brothers Funeral Home on Washington Avenue in Titusville, FL, on Friday, September 23rd from 5:00-7:00 pm. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an organization Chris felt strongly about.
I worked in the mechanical/fluids design and engineering analysis group and of course he worked in the electrical design area (a more difficult specialty!)
My biggest take away was he always was so positive ! - he always had that infectious ‘smile’ on his face!
With our deepest regards!
I will miss you my dear friend.
Chris with the work gang in the Titusville offsite design building off of SR 405 and 407. This may have been in the mid 1990s or so as we were in that building twice.
Chris with the United Space Alliance Design group in 2006.
Chris at his desk about 2004.
My brother died young too from pancreatic cancer.
Our dear friends and neighbor Chris and Karen in Wedgefield, Florida.
Chris next to his office. Nice view.
Karim Courey, Karen and Chris at Dan Fiorentino's retirement party
DSCE lunch at Grills
DSCE group photo at Grills 2017