John Cocoris

Who was John Cocoris?

John Michael Cocoris was a Greek businessman.

Born in Leonidio, he came to New York in 1895 to work in the sponge trade. In 1896 he worked with John K. Cheyney in Tarpon Springs, Florida. In 1905, he introduced sponge diving to the area and recruited Greek sponge divers from the Dodecanese Islands. By the 1930s, the sponge industry of Tarpon Springs was very productive, generating millions of dollars a year.

He died in 1944 in Duval County, Florida.