Luke Buyenovich

Under the cover of a summer’s night with the bora gently blowing towards Italy, 21 year-old Luka rowed his father’s boat from Yugoslavia across the Adriatic to Italy. His 74 year odyssey into the Free World ended on September 24, 2025.

Along the way he learned Italian in an Italian refugee camp before finding a Liberty ship that took him to Canada. He spoke no English but found work as a lumberjack. Having no luck in the camp poker games, he moved to Alaska to install radar sites on the DEW line and gained experience as an electrician. He moved to the USA to work on electrical power plants that were springing up in the American West. There, he found his future wife Gloria Jean Crisp. They were married 52 years until her death. They made a life in Dayton Ohio where they raised a family and ran a family- owned electrical construction company. Luka was preceded in death by his parents Savo and Jane Bujenovic and his sister Darinka Raceta. He is survived by his sister Slavka Martinovic, his son Steve Bujenovic and his daughter Julie Tanner as well as four grandchildren.

A visitation and a service will be held at Newcomer Funeral Home, 4104 Needmore Road, in Dayton, OH Tuesday, on September 30, 2025. Visitation from 9:30 -10:30 AM and immediately followed by service, then burial at Byron Cemetery in Fairborn, OH.

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