Nikola Djurich, a resident of Schererville, Indiana, died on January 26, 2024. He was 83 years old.
Nikola was born on January 20, 1941, in Glavice, Glamoč, Bosnia, in the former Yugoslav kingdom, to Vojko (1912-1991) and Staka (Srdić) Djurić (1920-2013), just three months before the Axis invasion that plunged his native country into the Second World War. His father and uncles, who fought against fascist and communist forces while serving in the Dinaric Chetnik Division, left home in 1943, never to return, and eventually immigrated to the United States in 1951. Nikola’s mother and younger brother, Jovo, joined his father there in 1958. After graduating from the gimnazija in Banja Luka and studying at the University of Belgrade, Nikola himself immigrated to the United States in 1969. He worked for the Inland Steel Company at its Indiana Harbor works for 37 years until his retirement in 2007. He moved from East Chicago to Schererville with his parents and uncles in 1981.
Nikola was a member of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church in East Chicago, the White Eagles, and the Association of Serbian Combatants of the Royal Yugoslav Army Draža Mihailović.
A pillar of his local Serbian-American community, our dear Nikica was a generous benefactor to numerous relatives, kumovi, and friends in America, Canada, Serbia, and Bosnia.
Nikola was preceded in death by his parents; his uncles, Trifun, Branko, Mićo, Špiro, and Jovo Djurić; his aunts, Radojka Djekić and Mara Ninković; his sister-in-law, Susan Djuric; and his cousins, Stevanija Krasić, Rade Jurich, Dušan Djurić, Stoja Guzijan, Ratko Djurich, Grozda Krasić, Borka Ćurković, and Vinka Pavlović.
He is survived by his brother, Jovo, of Seminole County, Florida; Jovo’s son and daughter-in-law, Nikola and Michelle Djuric, and their children, Madeleine, Henry, and Joseph Djuric, of Atlanta, Georgia; Jovo’s daughter and son-in-law, Christine and Erik Anderson, and their daughter, Agnes, of Baltimore, Maryland; his cousins, Mirko (Donna) Krasic, Marina (Dragan) Lukajic, Dane (Slobodanka) Djurić, Svetlana (Radoslav) Subotić, Dragana Djurić, Branko Djurić, Nikola (Anka) Djurić, Vojislav Djurić, and Špiro Djurić; and his dear friend, Rosemary Michalec.
A funeral will be held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, January 30, at St. George Serbian Orthodox Church, 4021 Elm Street, East Chicago, Indiana, followed by burial at the Monastery of the Most Holy Mother of God in Third Lake, Illinois.
