Michael/Mihaljo Pupin was born in the tiny village of Idvor in the Vojvodina province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Serbia) in 1858. He started his education in Idvor in a Serbian Orthodox school, then entered a German elementary school in Perlez, and went on to high school in Pancevo. His exceptional performance drew the attention of his teachers who encouraged him to study in Prague, beginning in 1872. After the death of his father in 1874, he left school and emigrated to the United States. He was 16 years old.
Shortly after arriving in New York, he found work in a biscuit factory. He studied English, Greek and Latin. In 1879, he entered Columbia University, graduating with high honors in 1883. From 1883 to 1885, he continued his education at the University of Cambridge, and then completed his Ph.D. at the University of Berlin. He returned to Columbia University in 1889 and joined the Electric Engineering Department.
In 1914, he founded the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art. He became a physicist, chemical physicist, inventor and founding member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), in 1915 - which became NASA. Pupin's contributions to physics, engineering, communications, medicine, education and culture are legendary - he was a remarkable man.
Pupin died in 1935, before the community center he donated to Idvor was completely built.
Birthplace in Idvor, Vojvodina
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Pupin Community Center and Auditorium, Idvor
At the park next to the Pupin Community Center, all arrows point to destinations
measured in kilometers from Idvor
Pupin Community Center - interior
Pupin Museum, Idvor
(An eclectic collection of all sorts of items used in Serbian life,
from traditional farming to modern inventions - such as the radio.)
Pupin Hall, Columbia University, completed in 1927
Michael Pupin and his wife Sarah, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York
(On a personal note: Perlez is the town to next Knicanin in Serbia. Pancevo - you will see soon - is where our cousins on the Nesic side live. Woodlawn Cemetery is located near the apartment building where my aunt, uncle and cousins lived in the Bronx.)
