John Ivan Prcela

JOHN IVAN PRCELA, age 103, of Cleveland Heights, OH passed away on November 21, 2025. Beloved husband of 40 years to the late Amelia Consuelo Prcela (nee Mir); dearest father of Maria Prcela-Jackson (Michael), Joseph Prcela (Laura), Anita Giusto (Chris) and Teresita Shepherd (Kevin); loving grandfather of Kristina (Kevin), Melyssa, Alena, Benjamin, John, Luke, Charlie, and Jesse; dear brother of Cecilia Barac (Ante, deceased) and the late, Paul (Giuliana), Sr. Vjera, Mate (Petra), Maria Milanovic Litre (Ivan), Fr. Ante Bonaventure, Martin (Ljubica), David (Lucia); uncle of many nieces and nephews all over the world.
John was born March 9, 1922 in Croatia and immigrated to the United States at the end of WWII with nothing to his name. He worked evenings to self-fund his education, graduating from John Caroll University and receiving a Master's degree from CWRU.
John was a high school teacher at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio from 1954-1958 and in the South Euclid-Lyndhurst City School District from 1958-1988. He was author of Operation Slaughterhouse of 1970 and 1995 and Hrvatski Holokaust (The Croatian Holocaust) of 2001 and 2005, and of five published books about the Mystery of St. Joseph in the Drama of Salvation. As a Croatian activist since 1957, John published a long chain of studies of historical and theological importance both in English and Croatian.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of John can be made to the family to fund the publication of his final St. Joseph book.
Funeral Mass Saturday, November 29, 2025 at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in St. Gregory the Great Church at 10 a.m. (Please meet at the church.) The Mass will be live streamed on the funeral home website. Entombment All Souls Cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the SCHULTE & MAHON-MURPHY FUNERAL HOME, 5252 MAYFIELD RD., LYNDHURST (BETWEEN RICHMOND AND BRAINARD) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2025 FROM 4 TO 7 P.M. Please sign Tribute Wall at: www.murphyfamilyfuneralhome.com