A Farewell to Arms - Vale Jack Vlasich

At the same time, he was loyal and honest. And that’s what made him such a treasure - all those attributes were his de�ining characteristics.

He had the same attitude to his many friends, which over time grew to people from Adelaide, to Melbourne, Geelong, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, and something that all of us learned to cherish over the years.

Over the course of the 10 years that we spoke, Jack would always say: ‘I’ll leave it in your best hands’, which of course meant he’d let me change a few small things while he added a whole lot of other much bigger things to whatever text or project we were working on at the time.

And you know, I was �ine with that because I knew where Jack’s heart and best intentions lay – and that was with helping the Croatian community in Australia.

It must be noted that in all this work, Jack was helped by many people around Australia, but especially the staff at the Hrvatski Vjesnik in Melbourne who for many years supported Jack’s struggle with the RSL.

Jack was also many other things – a former Sergeant in the New Zealand Army, a businessman, a brother, an agitator for change, an amateur historian, a husband and above all, a father.

And he was also a mentor to many others as his son says Kristen points out.

“I also remember a time in the 90’s when he had university students approach him and spend days with him as they were preparing their thesis papers (he was their expert advisor on the wars). The breadth of his

Jack Vlasich

research was incredible –he had three separate rooms at home, all full of articles, books, papers,” says Kristen.

Above all Jack was my friend and a man I admired very much.

Despite never meeting him, I could respect and honour him just because of his patriotism and hard work as well as his love for the Croatian people. And that is what made Jack Vlasich so special. He will be missed not just by his family and friends up in the Gold Coast, but by all of us.

An old soldier they say never dies, or as Hemmingway wrote in A Farewell to Arms: “The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one.”

Rest in peace old soldier. I hope the soil under the Southern Cross �inally grants you the well-earned rest you deserve. Farewell, old soldier.