Ante Šikić

Insurance actuary. (Krmpote, Croatia, 11 November, 1919 – Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, 6 March, 2004). 

PhD in philosophy and mathematics awarded by the University of Graz, Austria, in 1947. His dissertation, titled "The Problem of the Person." He was previously a student at the University of Zagreb. A member of the Croatian Peasant Party and an officer in the Croatian Armed Forces during WW II, he fled Croatia ahead of Tito’s communist army on 6 May 1945 and spent four years as a refugee in Europe. He departed Bagnoli, Naples, on 11 May 1949 and arrived in Melbourne on the ship Fairsea on 8 June 1949. He reached Bonegilla on 12 June 1949. Although registered by the IRO as a mechanic, in the camp “all men are classified as ‘labourers’ and all women as ‘domestics”.

Arrived in Adelaide by train on 29 June 1949, along with around 110 displaced persons who had obtained jobs at the Department of the Army, Keswick Barracks. Each barrack accommodated 25 persons, with Dr. Šikić taking on the role of translator for his group. He became involved with local Catholic youth organisations such as the Young Christian Worker’s Movement, where he spoke about Catholic organisations in Croatia and how to organise effective meetings. In 1950, became the secretary of the inaugural committee of the Croatian Club Adelaide–the first such club to be established in Australia. He worked as a carpenter until 1956, when he moved with his wife and three children to Cincinnati, USA, where he became an insurance actuary.