in memoriam - Vukota Okiljevic (1925-1998)

Prof.Dr. Vukota Okiljevic, who was an outstanding pedologist over a period of four decades, died on October 15. 1998. at the age of 73. He was born on May 4, 1925 in Platice. near Gacko. Bosnia and Herzegovina. He took part in World War II as a soldier, fighting for the liberation of Yugoslavia.

After the war he finished secondary school and graduated at the Agricultural Faculty in Belgrade, at the Department of Arable Crops, in 1950. After graduating, he was employed at the Institute for Research in Agriculture. Department of Agropedology and Agrochemisty in the period from 1951 to 1955. from 1955 to I960 at the Agricultural Station in Prijedor, as an advisor for pedology and arable crops. He was Head of this institution for three years and. during that time, established a soil laboratory there. In 1959. he went to the USA (Arizona. Tennessee. Alabama. South and North Carolina), specializing on soil fertility, fertilizers and soil liming.

He received the degree of D.Sc. in Pedology at the Agricultural Faculty in Belgrade, in 1965. After the foundation of the Agricultural Institute in Banja Luka. he taught chemistry, pedology and agrochemistry there for 13 years (1960-1973). His students still remember him as an excellent teacher. Dr. Okiljevic worked at the Institute for Scientific Research Agroekonomik” in Belgrade, as a scientific collaborator, from 1973 to 1978. During this period he worked in Yugoslavia as well abroad: in Iraq, in Egypt and Algeria, on the topics of soil research, soil classification and land reclamation.

From 1978 to 1990 he was the Head of the Department of Plant Nutrition and Land Reclamation of the Agricultural College in Banja Luka. During that time, apart from his outstanding scientific work, he succeeded in procuring modern field and laboratory equipment for the Department, ensuring remarkable progress in soil research.

He retired in 1990. but continued to teach pedology and petrography as professor emeritus at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry in Banja Luka. He had been a member of the Soil Science Society of Yugoslavia since its foundation in 1953 and a member of the International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) from 1978 on. participating in several World Soils Congresses. He was also a member of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) and the American Society of Agronomy (ASA). Prof. Okiljevic was an eminent soil scientist. He is sorely missed by his wife and sons, and he will be remembered by all his colleagues and students for his important contributions to the development of Pedology and Agrochemistry in Bosnia Herzegovina and abroad.

M. Markovic. M.Sc. Agricultural Faculty
Banja Luka
Republica Srpska
Bosnia and Herzegovina