In Memoriam

Abstract

Dr. Zuber was a Montenegrin born in the Moskva Hotel in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on Dec. 4, 1922. Prior to his immigration to the United States, Novak was a member of theBalkan AirForce, an Allied air formation composed of units of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and South African Air force under the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces command. The command was active from June 1944 until July 1945 under the command of RAF Air Vice Marshalls William Elliot and George Mills. This was followed by attending the University of Rome in Italy (1945–1947). During the period 1947–1949 he was a merchant seaman working as a wiper in the engine room of a ship captained by a family friend. Dr. Zuber's intense desire to pursue his scholastic dreams and an uncle in the Los Angeles, California area prompted him to jump ship during a stop in San Pedro, CA. He found his way to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and was able to enroll in their engineering program. In order to complete his education, he performed odd jobs such as washing dishes, washing cars, cleaning chicken coops, and gardening. Basically, jobs that did not require a “Green Card.â€‌ Immigration finally caught up with Novak during graduate school. However, by that time, he had impressed the people at UCLA with his work on high pressure boiling in support of the development of Rickover's nuclear submarine enough that they came to his rescue and he was able to complete his degree program, including the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. His doctoral dissertation was a classical treatment of the hydrodynamic aspects of boiling heat transfer.