Prof. Dragnich joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in Nashville in 1950, retiring in 1978 after having served as chairman of the political science department from 1964-69. Reflecting his multiple elections to Vanderbilt’s Faculty Council and University Senate, he received the Thomas Jefferson Award in 1970 for “distinguished service to Vanderbilt through extraordinary contributions as a member of the faculty in the councils and government of the university.” He also served as President of the Southern Political Science Association, and Vice-President of the American Political Science Association, during the 1960s. He held the Chester Nimitz Chair at the Naval War College in Newport, RI from 1959-60, and afterwards remained a consultant to the Department of Defense.

He was a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, California from 1978-81. He was a Distinguished Lecturer at Washington & Lee University (Lexington, VA) in 1982. Following a brief retirement in Spokane, WA, he settled in Charlottesville, VA where he continued scholarly research and writing. In 1988, he and his late wife became charter residents of the Collington Episcopal retirement community in Bowie, MD. From there, he continued to author books, journal articles, Op-Eds, and a steady stream of letters to the editor. Among his eleven books, Prof. Dragnich is probably best known as the original author of the textbook, Major European Governments (1961), which added more authors and is still in print, and used worldwide, forty-eight years and nine editions later.

Prof. Dragnich became an expert on Yugoslavia during World War II while serving in Washington as a foreign affairs analyst for the Department of Justice and the Office of Strategic Services. Following the war’s end in 1945, he taught at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio until joining the US Foreign Service in 1947. From then until he returned to academia in 1950, he was Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. That experience spawned his first book, a scathing critique of the new communist regime, Tito’s Promised Land, in 1954.

He continued to write on Yugoslavia and Serbia for the rest of his life, including a short monograph written in 1992 for general readership, Serbs and Croats: The Struggle in Yugoslavia, that went through multiple printings. A frequent panelist at Washington policy gatherings, Prof. Dragnich made guest appearances on the then MacNeil/Leher News Hour as the Balkans erupted into conflict. Prof. Dragnich was critical of US foreign policy in the region, believing that the Dayton Accords of 1995 would not have been necessary had the US played a more constructive role in the early stages of Yugolavia's disintegration. The Serbian Government awarded him the “Yugoslav Star, First Class” in 2002 in recognition of his efforts to foster a positive image of Yugoslavia and Serbia in the United States.

The son of Serbian immigrants from Montenegro, Prof. Dragnich was born in 1912 on his parents’ homestead outside Republic, Washington. When he was nine, the Ferry County truant officer found their log cabin in the mountains and informed his father that education was compulsory in America. He and two siblings entered a rural, one-room schoolhouse not knowing a word of English, the first of their kin to ever sit in a classroom. Although his education was frequently interrupted by Depression-era poverty, including an entire year spent cutting logs and building roads during college, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1938, and completed work on his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley in 1942 (wartime service delayed his Ph.D. until 1945).

A keen gardener whose belief in homegrown vegetables reflected his farming roots, Prof. Dragnich left the growing of flowers to his wife, Adele Jonas Dragnich, who died in 2000. Survivors include a daughter, Alix Lombardo of New York City, and a son, George Dragnich of Geneva, Switzerland, and three grandchildren, Marisa, Paul, and Alexander. A son, Paul Dragnich, predeceased him.

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) Dimitrije grew up in a "cozy, protected childhood and adolescence in pre-World War II days." As the scion of a distinguished 4th generation Belgradian family his future was very bright but then came the War and the juggernaut of the Nazi invasion of Eastern Europe. Dimitrije, known as "Mita" to all who knew and loved him, quickly joined the underground resistance group with his younger brother Mihailo. Together with many others they became devoted followers of General Dragoljub "Draza" Mihailovic and first fought against the forces of fascism and later communism. Civil War swept through the country after the defeat of the Nazis. Mita survived imprisonment by the Nazis in the notorious Mauthausen prison in Austria only to be captured and imprisoned again in more than one concentration camp in Yugoslavia. Eventually pardoned in 1947 Mita returned to his family in Belgrade and began his scholarly career.

Due to his resistance to the regime of Marshal Josip Broz Tito, Mita had great difficulty finding a job and gaining entry to the University of Belgrade. After a long struggle he succeeded and obtained his PhD in History in 1962. His academic career began with his trips to Greece, Germany and eventually the United States on lecture tours. Ultimately he was offered positions at several prestigious universities and elected to join the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1970. At the History Department he organized the Graduate Program of Balkan Studies and taught modern Yugoslav, Blakan and European history. He was tremendously proud of his 19 PhD candidates as well as 9 MA's. He called them all his "Balkan Family". At his retirement in 1991 his grateful students assembled a "Festschrift" (a collection of essays) in his honor titled, "Scholar, Patriot, Mentor".

Dimitrije was the author of 22 books in four languages and countless articles. He always said he suffered from "graphomania". His most touching and emotional work was his autobiography "Scars and Memory, Four Lives in One Lifetime" published in 1997 which describes his carefree youth in Belgrade, the descent of the black mantle of Fascism and the advent of communism that swept away all he knew and cared about in his beloved country. After his retirement emeritus from UCSB as "a leading international scholar of Balkan History" per Chancellor Henry T. Yang, he and his wife Nan continued with their extensive travels and enjoyed time with their combined families of children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild. In later years there were many long walks on the beaches of his beloved Santa Barbara with their adored dog, "Buba".

Mita's dear brother Mihailo "Misha" Djordjevic preceded him in death in 1991. He is survived by his loving wife, Nan, his daughter Jelena Markovic (Rade), his grandson Vladimir Markovic (Natasha), his granddaughter Danijela Markovic and great-granddaughter Tara Markovic all of Belgrade, Serbia as well as his step-children F. Taylor Sarguis (Claudine), Tod F. Sarguis, and Nina S. Walker (Matthew) all of California. Services are pending in Belgrade, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Friends may donate in his honor to the charity of their choice if desired.