Wayne S. Vucinich, 91; Russian, East European Professor at Stanford
Wayne S. Vucinich, 91, an influential Russian and East European scholar who taught at Stanford University for five decades, died of heart failure April 21 at a nursing home in Menlo Park, Calif.
From 1946 to 1988, Vucinich taught courses on Western civilization, and Russian and East European history and was the advisor to more than two dozen doctoral students. He was instrumental in founding and securing permanent funding for the Center for Russian and East European Studies at Stanford, which he directed from 1972 to 1985.
The child of immigrant Serbian parents, Vucinich lost his mother, father and infant brother in the influenza epidemic of 1918. An uncle took Vucinich and two siblings back to Herzegovina, where they lived in poverty in a remote village.
At the age of 15, he was given the option of joining the priesthood, the Serbian Army, attending agricultural school or moving to Los Angeles to live with his godfather. He chose Los Angeles.
Vucinich went on to UC Berkeley, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in Slavic languages and history.
After graduating, he served in the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the CIA, and in the Navy Reserve during World War II.
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