Page 63 - 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.

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