VETERINARSKI ARHIV 69 (5), 239-240, 1999

ISSN 1331-8055 Published in Croatia

Prof. Dr. Jelena Greguric
(1935-1999)

The Department of biology and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine the University of Zagreb have both lost an erudite intellectual, a rare specialist, a noble person and a sincere friend. Prof. Dr. Jelena Greguric finally lost her long battle against illness on Friday, 4 July 1999. She passed away in her own home attended by her close family, as she had ever wished to do.

Jelena Greguric was born in Split in 1935 where she completed her elementary schooling and classical gymnasium education. She graduated in 1963 from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb. In 1966 she was awarded her Master of Science Degree in the field of epizootiology and microbiology, and in 1976 she defended her Ph. D. dissertation in the field of infectious diseases. The general field of her expertise was microbiology, epizootiology and infectious diseases. Within that field her special interests were ecology and infectious diseases of urban and wild birds. She was the project leader for "Pigeons and other birds as reservoirs of zoonoses and other diseases" (1987-1990) and "Birds as reservoirs and transmitters of diseases to humans and animals" (1991-1995), and "Chlamydiosis in mammals and birds" (1996-1999). In her studies of birds as reservoirs and transmitters of diseases she achieved important scientific results.

In 1981 she visited the Louis Pasteur Institute in Paris where she underwent practical training. Between 1964 and 1967 she worked at the Veterinary Institute in Zagreb in the mastitis laboratory. From 1972 to 1976 she held the post of scientific assistant at the Institute for the Physiology and Pathology in Animal Production, working in the Laboratory for Leptospirae at the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Department. For seven years (1976-1983) she was employed as a scientific assistant in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Library. For the last 16 years (1983-1999) she worked as a teacher and scientific researcher in the Department of Biology. From 1995 she taught postgraduate studies on Sanitation.

Professor Greguric attended 22 scientific conferences, where she presented 61 papers. She also published 37 scientific papers and 10 professional papers and was also an extremely active member of five different professional organizations.

Prof. Dr. Jelena Greguric gave her unstinting support to everyone who worked with her, and in particular to young researchers to whom she patiently passed on her knowledge and experience. The best witness to this are the numerous students for whom she was a mentor in their student scientific studies and diploma papers, including 14 diploma papers, 6 student scientific papers awarded by the University of Zagreb, 39 student conference presentations, and in the committees of 78 diploma defences. Scientific assistants on her research projects were also ever appreciative of her assistance and encouragement in their work. She mentored one master's dissertation and commented on a further three.

Dr. Greguric was married with two daughters.

Never short of innovative ideas which she always strove to realise, it was her philosophy that life should not be wasted, that it is a sin not to use God-given talents to the full and that they have to be developed and improved upon by continuous effort. Those were the words she used to stimulate young people to invest into themselves and in their professional and scientific work. Life has to be fulfilled, she would say, and she lived by that rule. For that, and much more, we shall always remember Jelena.

Her ability and enthusiasm to achieve so much more in her life was to be increasingly limited, until eventually brought to a halt by a cruelly wasting disease. Our dear departed Professor Greguric has left us with fond memories of the days she spent with us, and she has earned our deep gratitude for all her scientific, professional and humane contributions.

Duro Huber