Milos M. Velimirovic

Professor Milos Milorad Velimirovic Ph.D.

Born on December 10, 1922, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Milos Milorad Velimirovic died at the age of 85 on Friday April 18, 2008, in Bridgewater, Virginia.

He taught history of music courses with a specialization in Byzantine Musicology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville from 1973 until 1993. In addition, he was a popular pre-concert lecturer at the Tuesday Evening Concert Series as well as the Summer Operas at Ash Lawn for more than two decades.

Professor Velimirovic was the first child of Milorad and Desanka Velimirovic. His father was a physician and his mother a piano teacher. Music was his passion from an early age and he studied both violin and piano. His musical ear aided his facility with multiple languages. World War II interrupted his history of music studies at the University and violin and piano studies at the Music Conservatory in Belgrade. He served the Mihailovic forces in Yugoslavia's internal civil war, and worked in forced labor camps run by Tito's Communist forces after the war. In 1952 he came to the United States for doctoral studies at Harvard University under the sponsorship of Professor Albert Lord and his wife Mary Lou Lord. In 1956 he married Norma Goodwin of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. They raised three children and divorced in 1977.

In addition to teaching at the University of Virginia, Professor Velimirovic was a scholar in residence at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., received two Fulbright Fellowships and taught at Yale University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He traveled extensively for musicological conferences in Russia, Poland, Greece, England and throughout the United States. Professor Velimirovic mentored many graduate students with an interest in Byzantine studies.

Professor Velimirovic married Elizabeth Desportes of Staunton, Virginia in 1985. They resided in a charming home in Ivy, Virginia for 20 years where Beth tended to beautiful flowers and Mish 'grew' goldfish. They attended operas, traveled to Provence, and founded a Parkinson's Disease support group.

He is survived by his wife of 23 years, Elizabeth Velimirovic of Bridgewater, Virginia; son Milo Velimirovic of LaCrosse, Wisconsin; and daughters, Mira Velimirovic of Santa Monica, California, and Nada Velimirovic of Oakland, California; as well as step-daughter, Laura Desportes Bowman of Grottoes, Virginia. He was the proud grandfather of nine in his extended family.

A memorial service will be held in Charlottesville, Virginia 2 p.m. Saturday April 26, 2008, at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist, 717 Rugby Road.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Milos Velimirovic Memorial Scholarship Fund. Checks may be sent to the attention of Lorrie Jean at McIntire Department of Music, P.O. Box 400176, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4176. Contributions may also be made on-line at http://news.clas.virginia.edu/music/ by following the support music at UVA link and specifying the fund Milos Velimirovic under special instructions.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.