My wife and I first met Milenko in November of 1997, at the Slava celebration in the house of Zoran Mladenovic and Jelena Roljevic. It was an outdoor smoke break, as I recall, and the topic was preferans, a card game played by many in former Yugoslavia. We learned that evening that Milenko was a passionate player of the game. I asked him to join our Preferans Club, which he enthusiastically excepted. And that is how our new and long lasting friendship began.

Preferans, like chess, is a game in which the skill, not luck, decide the winner. Games require three players and can take five hours, frequently even more, not to mention hours of socializing late into the night after the game is over, especially if you just played Milenko. We played the game not for the game itself, but to make new friends, be with each other, to temporarily forget our problems at work or home, to distract ourselves from the war that ravaged the country we came from. Milenko was by far our club's best player, highest ranked, winner of over 20 awards including Club Championship and Player of the Year.

Through the game of preferans I learned a lot about Milenko. He had a brilliant mind that managed knowledge and logic to perfection. In his high school days, he was Yugoslavia's champion in Mathematics and Chemistry. At NIST, he was a highly regarded scientist.

Milenko had a photographic memory. He could recall games we played years ago, including which cards each player held, sequence in which the cards were played, mistakes that were committed. He was a walking musical encyclopedia - he knew lyrics of hundreds of songs, and was always ready to sing them to us in his powerful voice, sometimes right in the middle of the game.

Milenko was passionate in his card playing, discussions, and encouraged others to do the same. Like his hero Novak Djokovic, Milenko was fiercely competitive, but always fair.

His energy level was always high, which enabled him to relate to younger people. He helped them with school work, parental issues, provided advice on love life and other personal problems. He did it as a friend, not an adult supervisor, which made him so loved and appreciated.

He also touched the life of my son, Sasha, in a profound way, at age 11. Sasha was born in the United States, and exclusively spoke English, despite our encouragement to do so in Serbian. In late 90s, Sasha played his first game of Preferans against Milenko. Each hand in Preferans has a bidding part, in which the players announce the suit they intend to play. Each attempt by Sasha to bid was met with Milenko's "I don't understand. Tell me in Serbian.". Sasha eventually gave in. That evening, full with enthusiasm, he came to tell us he spoke Serbian with Milenko all evening. Soon after, Sasha took a huge interest in the Serbian music, culture, books, and mastered the language to perfection.

Milenko learned the game of preferans from his mother, at age seven. He was very close to her. She died several years ago. Milenko's father also died recently. He took their inevitable death very hard. Even when his parents were alive, we were all very sensitive to the fact that Milenko was living alone, without a family nearby, and tried to provide to him the warmth of our homes and hearts. Milenko had us as his family. We were collectively his cuisines, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles.

My last game of Preferans with Milenko was on July 26th. He arrived at 1:00 and left early morning next day. Even though he did not win, we had a great time and sparked the game with lively conversation and a few bottles of Alamos, his favorite red wine. We spoke about many topics, including health. I advised him to get a physical exam, because we were not young and invincible any more. And then, on Thursday, 23rd of August, at 8:25 in the evening, I learned that the life dealt him his final, cruel and unexpected hand.

Milenko, my dear friend, I will miss you a lot.

Rest in peace.

We will love you and think of you forever.

Dusko V.