Tefko Saracevic

Tefko Saracevic, 93, beloved son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, father-in-law, uncle, professor and friend, passed away peacefully in the company of family in Spring Lake, Michigan on Saturday, October 5, 2024, after living a personally and professionally fulfilling life across the globe.

Dr. Saracevic survived a turbulent youth in war-time Yugoslavia, escaped to Austria, and moved to the United States, where he obtained his Ph.D. and became a globally renowned information scientist, educator, lecturer and author. Known around the world to his students and colleagues simply as "Tefko," he was born in Zagreb, Croatia, then known as Yugoslavia, to Serif and Senija (b. Bojic) Saracevic, who were originally from Bosnia. His mother died when he was a baby and he was raised by his businessman father, his extended family and his stepmother emila (b. Hasanpasic).

Despite his father's political imprisonment during World War II and his own two-year captivity in a work camp when he was only 14, Tefko spoke of his childhood positively, recalling teasing his younger sister Aida, finishing his schooling as an older student after he was released, learning German and English, and finding solace in mountaineering and skiing in his beloved mountains, particularly the Dinaric and Julian Alps and the Velebit range in Croatia.

For the rest of his life, he remained a nature-lover and maintained close friendships with his fellow mountaineers from the Velebit Mountaineering Society in Zagreb (Planinarsko Drustvo Sveucilista Velebit), for which he served as president in the 1950s. He met his wife Blanka (b. Kobovac), to whom he was married for 55 years before her death in 2014, through the Velebit Society.

Tefko obtained his first degree from the Electrotechnical Faculty at the University of Zagreb in 1957. A few months later, he escaped Yugoslavia's communist regime with only a small rucksack on his back by crossing the Alps on foot to Austria, where he was detained in a refugee camp. His knowledge of German made him helpful in the camp and prevented his deportation. He eventually started working in Vienna before the Austrian government pushed non-citizens to find homes in other countries. Tefko was surprised that the United States accepted his application, and hurriedly wrote to his girlfriend Blanka in Zagreb, proposing marriage and a life in a new country. Blanka took a train to Vienna for a weekend in December 1958, where they were married just before Tefko left for the United States. Blanka returned to Zagreb and Tefko moved to Cleveland, Ohio, based on sponsorship from fellow Croatians and Bosnians living there. He arrived in January 1959 with little money and great hunger for growth and opportunity. His first job in the U.S. was washing dishes at Hopkins Airport before he found work as an electrician at Cleveland Twist Drill's plant. After a year, he had saved enough money to bring Blanka to America and she had secured permission to leave Yugoslavia. He drove the Chrysler he had purchased to New York City to meet her ship and she was shocked to see on her arrival that they owned a car.

In the 1960s, Tefko and Blanka built their American Dream in Cleveland, both obtaining advanced degrees and developing as professionals, becoming American citizens, buying their first home and bringing children Aida and Alan into their lives. Tefko began working at the Center for Communication and Documentation Research at Case Western Reserve University and obtained his master's and doctorate degrees in information science from CWRU. Blanka also obtained a master's degree from CWRU and was a children's librarian and director of children's services. Tefko was a professor at Case for many years, publishing articles and textbooks and conducting research in his favorite topics of relevance in searching and human-computer interaction in information retrieval. In 1985, he became a professor at the School for Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and moved his family to that state.

In both Cleveland and New Jersey, Tefko was active in Croatian societies, serving as president of the American-Croatian Academic Society in Cleveland for many years. He was a prolific author regarding information science theories and research and became a Fulbright Scholar, UNESCO and Rockefeller Foundation fellow, and a sought-after speaker and guest professor at dozens of universities around the world, from Brazil to Uganda to China to many universities in Europe and other parts of Asia.

Tefko loved being with students and he considered supporting candidates in their pursuit of a Ph.D. among his most important contributions. Tefko was president of the American Association for Information Sciences and Technology and received that organization's lifetime achievement Award of Merit in 1995. He was a member of several editorial boards in his field and was Editor-in-Chief for Elsevier Science's Information Processing and Management international journal for more than twenty years. He co-founded the international conference Libraries in the Digital Age which hosted global leaders in the field in Croatia for more than twenty years. Tefko was the recipient of the prestigious Gerald Salton Award for Scientific Excellence presented by the Association for Computing Machinery in 1997. The University of Zadar awarded him an honorary doctorate of science in 2011 for his contributions to the field of information science. His many publications remain highly cited and he is recognized as being an influential information science scholar. https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/news/memoriam-tefko-saracevic-distinguished-professor-emeritus-library-and-information-science

Despite his considerable professional achievements, Tefko will be best remembered for his good humor, optimism, storytelling, love of children and enduring respect for nature. He was often a fascinating dinner companion for students, colleagues, friends and family, and reveled in playing with, reading to, and hiking with his children and grandchildren and those of friends and family. He instilled in his children and grandchildren a love for travel, local food and culture, and the ability to communicate in other languages.

His favorite place to ski was Alta, Utah, which he visited annually for over thirty years with his friends and family and where he taught his children and grandchildren how to ski and respect the mountains. After Croatia obtained independence, he once again became a citizen of his beloved homeland, but treasured most deeply the opportunity the United States of America offered him, which he credited in his first textbook. Tefko skied when he was 87, took a daily hike into his 90s and took his last trip to Croatia when he was 91.

Tefko was preceded in death by his parents; wife, Blanka; sister, Aida Smajic; sisters-in-law, Vesna Nikolic and Zeljka Grakalic; brothers-in-law, Muhamed Fejzic and Vjekoslav Grakalic; and to his great sadness, his son, Alan Tefko Saracevic, who died unexpectedly in San Francisco in 2022 after meeting his father in Croatia just weeks before.

He is survived and will be deeply missed by his daughter, Aida Saracevic Tanaka; son-in-law, Stephen Tanaka; daughter-in-law, Jennifer Kline Saracevic; grandchildren: Isabella Tanaka, Allegra Tanaka, Samuel Saracevic and Maggie Saracevic; nieces and nephews: Drazen Nikolic (Christine Knackfuss), Maja Bilandzic (Zoran Pribicevic), Tefko Fejzic, Ozren Grakalic and Bruno Grakalic; many cousins, in-laws and grandnieces/nephews; and thousands of friends around the world.

The family will have a service in Zagreb next month.


FOTO: Private