Obituaries: Stjepan Gaži, Joseph Kraja, Bonifacije Perović

STJEPAN GAŽI

Stjepan Gaži, Professor of European History at Black Hills State College, Spearfish, South Dakota and a member of the Croatian Academy of America died on September 15, 1978.

Gaži was born on August 9, 1914 in Peteranec, Croatia. He obtained his law degree from the University of Zagreb in 1939. From 1942—1944 he studied at Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland and received a Ph.D in history from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. in 1962., His Ph.D. thesis was entitled Stjepan Radić and Croatian Question.

Gaži was a contributor to the Journal of Croatian Studies and to several Croatian-language periodicals and newspapers, especially to Hrvatski glas, published in Winnipeg, Canada. He edited Spomenica (Winnipeg, 1952) and was the author of Croatian Immigration to Allegheny County 1882-1914 (Pittsburgh, 1956) which was published by the Croatian Fraternal Union. His book A History of Croatia (New York, Philosophical Library 1973) is, as he indicated in the preface, a survey based on the texts of leading Croatian historians. "I wrote A History of Croatia with the intention to tell my children and their children's children the history of the land and people of their ancestors. It could only be done with the most scrupulous respect to the historically documented facts", Gaži said in the introduction.

Together with his wife Elizabeth, Gaži translated from Croatian into English the book In the Struggle for Freedom, by Vladko Maček, President of the Croatian Peasant Party (New York, Robert Speller & Sons, 1957).

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth and four children.

JOSEPH KRAJA

Joseph Kraja, a long-time member of the -Croatian Academy of America died in Youngstown, Ohio on November 16, 1979.

Kraja war born on March 7, 1891 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He was trained at the Naval Academy for the service at sea. In 1907 he came to the United States to his father Nicholas, who was ill. When the father died, Kraja's family in Croatia urged him to remain in America.

As a very young man he began work at the printing plant in New York and immediately became active in Croatian affairs and in one way or another he will continue to be involved throughout his long lifetime. After New York he worked in printing plants in Chicago and Cleveland and became an expert in his trade. Being an erudite his interests widened beyond his specialty. In 1914 he settled down in Youngstown joining the leaders of several ethnic groups who formed the United Printing Co. Kraja's proficiency in several languages and his expertise made him extremely valuable for new enterprise. He worked there as a printer one year only to be promoted and placed in charge of the printing department. Several foreign-language weeklies were printed in the United Printing Co. Among them was a Croatian language paper, Hrvatska Štampa, published and edited by Kraja.

In 1922 Kraja and Nathan Grosshandler, who was the salesman of the company, bought out other stockholders. Grosshandler became president and Kraja, vice president. After Grosshandler's death Kraja became the president and the owner. The firm which started in East Front Street, moved into larger quarters in W. Federal Street in 1919 and then to 450 W. Federal Street in 1937. The United became the largest printing company in the area 'between Chicago and Pittsburgh. As the commercial printing business grew, the foreign language papers were dropped one by one and in 1934 the last one rolled from the presses. Almost three decades later a scholarly English language publication dedicated to Croatian studies will be printed by Kraja's printing company. This was the Journal of Croatian Studies, published by the Croatian Academy of America. Volumes 3 to 12 from 1962 to 1971 were published there. Kraja personally has taken a special interest in the Journal overseeing that the highest graphic standards be met in handling the manuscripts which often contained references in several foreign languages.

Kraja was active in many organizations, but of a special importance is his work in the National Croatian Circle, an organization established in the summer of 1928 in the aftermath of the assassination of Stjepan Radić and Croatian deputies in the Belgrade Parliament. One of the principal leaders and promoters Kraja served several terms as the president of the Circle. The organization ceased in 1946. Kraja's reminiscences and several documents related to the activities of the Croatian National Circle were published in the Journal of Croatian Studies, volume 5-6, 1964-65.

He was a member of Croatian Catholic parish of SS Peter and Paul of Youngstown, of the Croatian Fraternal Union, of International Typographical Union and other organizations.

During his lifetime Kraja has corresponded with many public figures and has preserved important letters and records, including minutes of the National Croatian Circle, newspaper clippings referring to activities of American Croatians and Croatian affairs in general, pamphlets, books and other material. Shortly after celebrating his 88th birthday in March 1979, he donated a large part of these unique historical materials to the Immigration History Research Center of the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Kraja was survived by his wife Dora, nee Arguilla and two sons from his first marriage; Odelin of Youngstown, who is in real estate and Mylio of Washington, D. C., a liason officer with the American Legion. There is also one grandson and great grand-daughter, who survived.

The Youngstown Vindicator of November 17, 1979 published a long obituary and in its issue of November 19 the following editorial:

An era that is almost forgotten gave Joseph Kraja his opportunity in Youngstown.

Mr. Kraja came here when thousands of Mahoning Valley residents needed newspapers in their native tongues, and weeklies were being published in German, Hungarian, Slovak, Italian, Romanian and Greek—perhaps in other languages as well. His proficiency in languages distinguished him as a printer, and within a few years he was a partner in the United Printing Co. From then on, he made his own opportunity.

United Printing grew into a highly successful operation, the largest commercial print shop in the area. Ethnic newspapers gradually disappeared but United had the equipment and the enterprise to print papers and circulars and many other kinds of work.

Mr. Kraja, while keeping a sure hand on his business, found time for bridge and chess and, more important, to work for the progress and welfare of newcomers and especially for his fellow Croatians. He played an important part in helping many Youngstown families develop from aliens into informed and useful American citizens.

In his last will Kraja bequeated the Croatian Academy of America $1,000.

BONIFACIJE PEROVIĆ

Bonifacije Perović, a Franciscan priest, distinguished sociologist and author, corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of America, died on April 5, 1979 in Bologna, Italy.

Perović who was the second in the family of seventeen children was born on November 24, 1900 in Arbanasi, Croatia. He attended the High School in Zadar, but in his junior year, when the city was occupied by Italian troops, he was forced to leave. Continuing his education in Visoko and having obtained the High School diploma in Dubrovnik, he enrolled into the Catholic Seminary and was ordained a priest in 1923. Already as a seminarist and young priest he was very active in organizing youth in Catholic movement. In 1928 Perović went to study abroad and after a brief stay in Germany, spent almost four years in France. He took several courses at Sorbonne and obtained a doctorate in sociology from Institut Catholique in 1932. His thesis Le milieu social et son organisation was considered of such importance that a Paris periodical Dossier de l'Action populaire, :published parts of the thesis in three installments in 1932 and 1933 paying Perović a honorarium. Upon his return to Croatia he worked as professor in Split, Makarska and Dubrovnik. In all these cities he was successful in organizing Catholic workers and students and this led to his first confrontations with Communists, who considered him a dangerous ideological enemy. At the request of Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac, Perović was in 1936 transferred to Zagreb and became the spiritual leader of "Domagoj", an organization of Croatian Catholic students and intellectuals, which grew into a very influential branch of the Croatian Catholic Movement. A prolific writer and lecturer, a charismatic speaker, popularly called The Padre, Perović exerted enormous influence on the formation of numerous students and prominent Catholic figures during his stay in Zagreb, for almost a decade.

At the end of the war, in 1945, he shared the destiny of thousands Croatian refugees who managed to find the safety in the West. From 1945 to 1947 he taught sociology at "Antonianum" in Rome. At the end of 1947 he left for Argentina to join the Croatian Franciscans in Jose Ingenieros who were especially active among Croatian immigrants in that country. He was to spend the next twenty years in Argentina acting alternatively as the Head of the Franciscan Commissariat, a professor, a contributor to numerous Croatian and international publications—all this in addition to his regular priestly duties. For several years he had been working on manuscripts of some books. In 1968 he requested to return to Europe, to be closer to the sources needed in his work and be in conditions where he could dedicate more of his time to his writing. His wishes were granted and he moved to a Franciscan monastery in Bologna where he spent the last years of his life.

In a period of about twenty-five years, ending with the World War II, Perović has published numerous articles in the following periodicals: Narodna svijest, Nova revija, Hrvatska prosvjeta, Hrvatska straža, Spremnost, Domovina and others. He was also a contributor to Hrvatska enciklopedija [Croatian Encyclopaedia) of which five volumes were published from 1941—1945. [Most of the fifth volume was destroyed by Tito's Yugoslav regime in May of 1945]. Perović was also the author of several booklets of "Moderna socijalna knjižnica"--MOSK [Modern Social Library]. Among them are: Kapitalizam (1934), Boljševizam (1935), Komunističke krilatice (1936) and Nova komunistička taktika na djelu (1936).

After the war Perović contributed to Enciclopedia della morale cristiana, published in Rome.

In Argentina Perović exerted great influence on Glas Sv. Antuna, a Croatian-language cultural-religious monthly, published from 1948—1958 by the Croatian Franciscans and edited by Ivo Lendić, a poet and close collaborator of Perović.

Over the years Perović contributed to several publications of Croatian exiles: Osoba i dub, Glas Sv. Antuna, Hrvatska revija, Novi život, Studia Croatica, Nova Hrvatska, Hrvatska misao, Danica and others.

In addition to the MOSK booklets, his works include one book on communism, published by the Society of St. Jerome in Zagreb and the following books published abroad: Hrvatsko društvo u revolucionarnom procesu [Croatian Society in Revolutionary Process] (München-Barcelona, Knjižnica Hrvatske Revije, 1971), Hrvatski katolički pokret—Moje uspomene [Croatian Catholic Movement—My Memories] (Rome, ŽIRAL, 1976), Društvo u svom ljudskom liku—Vrijednosti i društvene snage nove hrvatske izgradnje [Society in Its Human Form—Values and Society Forces of a New Croatian Build—Up.] München-Barcelona, Knjižnica Hrvatske Revije, 1979. The printing of his last book was completed five months after his death.

Perović's memories on the Croatian Catholic Movement, of which he was one of the central personalities, have unique documentary value, though he was seriously handicapped by not having access to documentary material, of which much was left in his library in Croatia and lost. In introduction to his last book Perović said: "In the first book [Croatian Society in Revolutionary Process] we have attempted to give a concise analysis of the processes of the elementary socio-ethical, cultural and spiritual expressions of our Croatian society under Communism. Here, however, we are intending to elaborate upon the positive human values and society's live forces by which we could build our society in its human form".