Daniel Antovich Combined Hard Work, Sense Of Tradition

Whether it was milking cows as a teenager in Kent or building roads as a contractor in California, Daniel Antovich demonstrated a solid work ethic and seemed forever vigorous.

"He was always working," recalled Mr. Antovich's younger brother, Peter Antovich, of Seattle.

That's why it came as a shock to family and friends that the 58-year-old Seattle-born businessman had fallen ill earlier this year at his home in Saratoga, Calif., near San Jose.

Mr. Antovich, 58, died of leukemia last Wednesday after an unsuccessful bone-marrow transplant at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Mr. Antovich's daughter Marlena Djukich, of Saratoga, described him as warm, dynamic and positive, a devoted father who instilled in his children a sense of goodwill, integrity and tradition. And if all of that weren't enough, she added, he ate well and exercised rigorously five days a week, she added. "He was such an example for five children," she said.

Mr. Antovich and eight siblings were the children of Yugoslavian immigrants who settled on a 7-acre farm in Renton in the 1930s. The family spoke the Serbo-Croatian language at home, and Mr. Antovich did so fluently. Like the rest of the family, he also was versed in the teachings of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and he worked hard. As a child, he made money delivering newspapers, picking beans and milking cows at a dairy in Kent.

But there was a wild side to Mr. Antovich, too, recalled his brother. He had a love of fast cars and a proclivity for driving them that way. As the legend goes, the young Mr. Antovich once drove his sporty, 1956 Austin Healy roadster so fast around a hairpin curve at Seward Park that a friend in the passenger seat nearly passed out from force of the turn. He also owned a motorcycle that he hid in the woods to keep his father from knowing about it, his brother said.

The freewheeling ended when Mr. Antovich entered the Marine Corps in 1955. By 1958 he had relocated to the Oakland, Calif., area and started an underground utility construction business. That's what he did for the rest of his life - winning road-construction, sewer-system and other government bids. In 1992, he served as president of the Engineering and Utility Contractors Association.

He also held leadership positions at churches in California and became active in the Serbian National Federation, a civic group in Seattle. Mr. Antovich traveled frequently, visiting several times his parents' homeland of Montenegro, in the southern part of the former Yugoslavia.

In addition to his daughter and brother, Mr. Antovich is survived by his wife, Dotte Antovich; sons, Radomir, Todd and Zachary; and daughter, Michelle Piplica, all of California. Other survivors include his mother, Stefanija Antovich; sisters Darinka Brown, Danica Kaloper, Borika Skjonsberg, Vidna Lundin, and Zorka Antovich; plus many in-laws, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be sent to the Leukemia Society of America, Northern California Chapter, 55 Hawthorne St., Suite 510, San Francisco, CA 94105.