Page 66 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ George S. Jurgich

1996-1997

Most Worshipful Brother George Simovich Jurgich was born in
Silverdale on April 4, 1923. His parents came to the United States
from the country of Montenegro, which is now a province of
Yugoslavia. His father came to the Northwest to work in the woods
as a tree faller on the Kitsap County Peninsula. He lost his life in a
logging accident, leaving his widow at eighteen years of age with
two children, Zorka and George, both under two years of age.

When George was three years old, his mother remarried and moved
to Kent where the children grew up bearing the name of her new
husband. When George was drafted in World War II, the man he knew as his dad told him about
his biological father. George replied, "You are the only father I have ever known, and this changes
nothing about how I feel about you." The strength of character and decisiveness that is the hallmark
of George Jurgich's life was fashioned in that close-knit community, tempered by adversity and
sustained by his deep and abiding faith as a member of the Orthodox Church.

Having served in the European Theater in the Third Army under General Patton, George emerged
from World War II with a staff sergeant's stripes and memories that come from combat, but the
difficulties of war were forgotten quickly in the company of his beautiful wife Violet. They met in
Seattle and George was struck by her classic beauty, but even more he appreciated her brilliance,
her keen intelligence, and her serene confidence. They were married in 1944. Their union produced
two beautiful daughters, Diana (who married George G. Plumis and presented George and Vi with
grandchildren Theodore and Gregory Plumis) and Georgia (who married C. Blair Leckie and
added Andrew and Alice Elizabeth Leckie to the family).

George Jurgich was made a Mason in Maritime Lodge No. 239 in 1955. His first lodge
appointment was as Chaplain and he held every successive office culminating in his election as
Worshipful Master in 1964. Most Worshipful Brother Audley Mahaffey appointed him Grand
Junior Steward in 1967; Most Worshipful Brother Matt Martin appointed him Deputy of the Grand
Master in District No. 4 in 1984, and he was reappointed by Most Worshipful Brother Warren
Gilbert, Jr., in 1986.

He served on numerous Grand Lodge Committees, including instituting the planned giving to the
Endowment Fund Program for the Masonic Retirement Center. He was elected Junior Grand
Warden in 1993 and Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted
Masons of Washington in 1996.