A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Imprints in the Landscape: Serbian Toponyms in North America

Marinel Mandreš
Wilfrid Laurier University

Complementing an earlier article that identified Serbian place-names throughout the world, this composition concentrates upon commemorative appellations in the United States and Canada.1 It examines the historical circumstances by which existing, mistaken, altered, and apparent place-names arose; it also attempts to establish a naming pattern. North American geographical nomenclature includes numerous foreign designations that were not randomly chosen. Representing the intersection of geography and history, place-names preserve various aspects of a country’s national and cultural heritage that might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten by successive generations. Bestowed by early immigrants or offered by postal authorities and entrepreneurs, toponyms of a definite Serbian origin reflect prevailing attitudes towards Serbia and Montenegro at the time of their designation.

Existing Toponyms

An investigation of contemporary nomenclature inevitably involves historical anecdotes and a recounting of the personalities and events that produced them. Reasons for the naming of most places were determined. Some historical sources provide incomplete, speculative, and possibly incorrect information regarding place-name origins due to omissions, digressive explanations, and/or an absence of detailed documentation. Locally invented and recounted ex post facto explanations of probable origins should not be considered as definitive accounts. Extensive correspondence was maintained with several historical societies in an effort to ensure factual accuracy when exceedingly limited published data was available. Records related to the founding of some communities are elusive or no longer exist. In the absence of other reliable information, post office opening and closing dates provided clues as to when asettlement was established, active, and declined. It was impossible to investigate “paper towns” created by land speculators during the 1800s.

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Source: Serbian Studies

SA

 

People Directory

Gojko Vuckovic

The longtime member and supporter of NASSS, Dr. Gojko Vuckovic(61) passed away on October 11, 2013 in Los Angeles, after a brief battle with gastric cancer. Dr. Vuckovic was buried at the Serbian Cemetery in Los Angeles, officiated by Father PetarJovanovic.

Dr. Vuckovic received his B.A. from the University of Belgrade. After arriving to the United States, he received a M.S.M.from the Arthur D. Little School of Management, Cambridge, Massachusetts(1990) and a M.P.A. from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1991). Healso received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (USC), School of Public Administration, Los Angeles, California(1996) with a concentration in the areas of comparative politics and administration.

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Publishing

Commentary on the Epistles of St. John the Theologian

by Archimandrite Justin Popovich

This Commentary on the Epistles of St. John the Theologian - published now, three years after the blessed repose of Venerable Fr. Justin (on the Feast of the Annunciation, 1979) - was written by the tireless Messenger of Christ forty years ago, in circumstances similar to those in which Christ's Holy Evangelist John wrote his sacred Epistles.

The text of this 93-page soft-bound book has been translated from the Serbian by Radomir M. Plavsic. Published by Sebastian Press, Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Contemporary Christian Thought Series, number 5, First Edition, ISBN: 978-0-9719505-6-6