Born in Boston, Massachusetts and educated at Harvard College, his undergraduate education was interrupted by World War II, in which Babalas served as a first Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry before receiving his undergraduate A.B.

He married Lillie Macheras and would be recalled to military service during the Korean War.

He was active in his Greek Orthodox Church, as well as other civic organizations including the Masons, Shrine (Khedive), Elks, Civitan, Knights of Pythias and American Legion.

[2] Babalas announced his pending retirement on March 3, 1987, shortly after a legislative session which debated ethics reforms and in which his name was often mentioned.

A state senate ethics panel had censured Babalas for voting in 1985 for measures which favored one of his legal clients, Landbank Equity Corp., which went bankrupt, but the censure contained no penalties (Babalas retained his chairmanship of the powerful Rules Committee) and only resulted in a referral to Virginia's attorney general.