FSD 20-07 Memorial Resolution for Milan Dakich, Purdue University Calumet Communication Professor
FSD 20-07 Memorial Resolution for Milan Dakich, Purdue University Calumet Communication Professor
Purdue University Northwest Faculty Senate
Submission Date: August 21, 2020
Senate Action and Date:
For Information, August 28, 2020
Milan Dakich, Purdue University Calumet communication professor from 1970 to 2011, died on June 30, 2020, at the age of 91.
Dakich taught a variety of public speaking courses in the department of communication and creative arts, including a special course in written and oral communication for engineers. He also supervised the department’s internship program. He had taught previously in the Gary Public Schools. He also served as parliamentarian of the PUC Faculty Senate.
Thomas J. Roach, chair of the PNW communication and creative arts department, joined PUC as a visiting instructor in 1987 and shared an office with Dakich in Lawshe Hall.
“Milan was a member of a group of faculty who got together for lunch every week, and he brought me with him and introduced me to an interesting cross section of faculty from across the campus,” Roach said.
Catherine Gillotti, an associate dean of the College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, first met Dakich when he picked her up at the Tri-State shuttle terminal in Highland for her interview in 1996.
“His warmth humor and generosity were always at the forefront of his interactions with others,” Gillotti said. “I loved going to our department meetings just to hear the day’s witty comment.”
Neil Nemeth, an associate dean of the College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, had an office near that of Dakich in Porter Hall for several years. He recalled Dakich’s interest in Purdue and Chicago sports, and his long association with actor Karl Malden, who had been raised in Gary.
“As a teacher, Milan valued the fundamentals of public speaking,” Nemeth said. “He did not have much interest in later pedagogical developments in the communication field that he called “touchy-feely.”
Dakich was a 1948 graduate of Gary Emerson High School, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana State University.
Dakich served as a trustee on the Merrillville Town Board from 1976 to 1983 and also on the town’s planning commission and board of zoning appeals. He represented Merrillville on the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission and Ross Township on the advisory committee for the Lake County Drainage Board. He was also a board member of the Merrillville Conservancy District.
In his later years, he was active in the historical society of the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church, of which he was a lifelong member.
Dakich is survived by his wife of 66 years, Edith; three sons, Peter (Karen) Dakich, Mark Dakich, and David (Melissa) Dakich; three grandchildren; and his brother-in-law, Roderic Daniels.