John Lavrakas is a retired aerospace engineer who lives in Newport, Oregon with his wife Melody Shipherd Lavrakas.

He graduated from Harvey Mudd College (1974) and Claremont Graduate University (1975) with degrees in Mathematics. He taught mathematics and physics at Indiana Vocation Technical College in South Bend, Indiana for three years, then spent forty-two years as an aerospace engineer, with forty years of it on the Global Positioning System. This work took him through all aspects of GPS, from the development and maintenance of the Control Segment through the development of military and civilian user applications to implementation of significant new capabilities in GPS, including civil signal performance monitoring. He most recently served as a subject matter expert to the U.S. Department of Transportation on GNSS, and served as a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations International Committee on GNSS. Over his career, he has led engineering projects, acted as principal investigator on research and development projects, successfully developed and marketed commercial satellite navigation software programs, and ran his own company, Advanced Research Corporation. He is a past president of the Institute of Navigation and an ION Fellow. He is author or co-author of over 40 papers and articles on GPS, wave energy, and fisheries information systems.

He served on the board of the Yaquina Bay Economic Foundation, one year as its president. In 2011, he was recognized as the U.S. Small Business Administration as Small Business Person of the Year for Oregon[1]. He also is a member of the Board of the Newport Symphony Orchestra, and has served as its President and its first Executive Director.

John and Melody have three children, Miranda, James, and Robert who all live on the West Coast, and one dear granddaughter, Nora who to their delight lives nearby in the Portland area.