High-profile Croatian-American Bernard Luketich dead at 84
Bernard M. Luketich
Bernard Luketich is shown in 2014 with his likeness at the Croatian Fraternal Union headquarters.
Coal miner. Mayor. Tamburitzan. Cultural ambassador. Fraternalist.
So many labels describe Bernard Luketich that it’s hard to list all of them.
Luketich, recipient of numerous citations and prestigious awards from the government of Croatia, died Tuesday at age 84.
News of his death was broadcast worldwide Thursday on Hrvatska RadioTelevizija, “The Voice of Croatia,” which, on its English-language website, noted he “dedicated much of his life to strengthening ties between Croatian expats in the U.S. and Croatia” through his beloved Croatian Fraternal Union, of which he was national president for more than three decades.
The Cokeburg native was himself a Croatian-language broadcaster, hosting “Voice of the CFU – Four Counties,” which aired Sunday afternoons for nearly six decades throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania.
In February 2000, Luketich was invited to travel to Croatia with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the Croatian capital, Zagreb, for the inauguration of President Stjepan Mesic. They were among the first dignitaries received by Mesic at the presidential palace.
It wasn’t the first time the United States government called upon Luketich.
The White House tapped him in May 1980 to serve as an official member of the American delegation bidding a final farewell to Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia, who forged diverse ethnic groups into a South-Slav European nation. Luketich had met the Yugoslavian leader in 1967 at Tito’s summer home in Berioni.
After his return from Belgrade, he spoke of seeing at the funeral British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Indian President Indira Gandhi, Soviet leader Andrei Gromyko, Iranian Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh “and a slew of kings and queens.”
That the son of Croatian immigrants who came to Washington County to mine coal would be rubbing shoulders with world leaders made Luketich a prime example of the American success story.
Luketich himself worked for a time as a miner, and he also organized a cultural group, the St. George Junior Tamburitzans of Croatian Fraternal Union Lodge 354 in Cokeburg, being elected lodge president in 1949 at the age of 18. He was the youngest delegate to the Croatian Fraternal Union national convention in 1951. He served a stint in the U.S. Army in Korea during the Korean War and was elected to the fraternal organization’s national board of trustees eight years later. In the meantime, he served as deputy controller of Washington County, a position he held until he joined the CFU national administration.
Luketich was sworn into office as national president June 1, 1978, and was re-elected at national conventions through 2011. At the time of his death, the organization listed him as national president emeritus.
Staff writer Karen Mansfield, in a Nov. 23, 2014, Observer-Reporter story, described Luketich as “a tireless crusader for Croatia” as he coordinated U.S. efforts to raise money to help Croatian war orphans, played a role in the establishment of the Republic of Croatia as a democratic nation and traveled across the United States and Canada to promote Croatian history and traditions.
In November of last year, in Cleveland, Luketich was presented with Croatia’s highest award, Charter of the Croatian, by Croatia’s then-president Ivo Josipovic for “outstanding contributions in promoting the reputation and interests of the country and preserving the existence of the Croatian identity.” It was the first time the award was given to a person. Historically, it has been won by institutions.
“You should always remember where you came from,” Luketich said last year when his fraternal union, headquartered near Monroeville, unveiled a sculpture of him.
The Croatian Fraternal Union was founded in 1894 to provide death benefits to widows of coal miners. Today, the organization provides insurance, investment and social services for more than 60,000 members in the United States, Canada and Croatia, and has assets of nearly $400 million, according to its website.
One of his most significant accomplishments was a humanitarian campaign he launched in 1991 following the end of Croatia’s war with Serbia. Luketich said CFU members spent nearly $1.2 million to sponsor about 1,500 orphans, and the CFU disbursed an estimated $23 million in goods and services to aid the people of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
On July 25, 2013, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle paid tribute to Luketich’s service as national president of the Croatian Fraternal Union in remarks included in the Congressional Record.
Doyle noted the CFU “ardently supported the Republic of Croatia’s establishment as a stable democratic and free market-oriented nation-state as a result of the devolution of the Soviet Union and the Balkan wars of the 1990s.” Croatia was granted full membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2009 and the European Union on July 1, 2013.
“Everyone always calls him Bernie,” said Michelle Janicki, 58, of Hopewell Township, Beaver County, in the Aliquippa area, speaking of Luketich in the present tense despite his death. Janicki knew Luketich from age 6 through both the Croatian Fraternal Union and youth and adult tamburitza music groups.
“He was always very approachable,” said Janicki, a second-generation American. “He was just a gentleman, an approachable gentleman. He had no problem coming down to our local lodge, our local Croatian center to speak at a dinner. It’s about where we came from. It’s where our traditions are, something you can share with your children. It doesn’t happen a lot today.”
As civic leader of Cokeburg, Luketich put the little borough near Bentleyville on the map.
Former Washington County Commissioner Bracken Burns recalled Luketich would host an annual festival in Cokeburg, “where he was mayor for life and folks literally from around the world would show up. If you were a political person, you knew him and you paid your respects, so to speak. It was not so much an obligation, it was a joy. People wanted to be there and enjoyed the fellowship. He was one of the good guys. He will be missed.”