The Secrets of France: Three Alumnae Remember UMD’s Milan Kovacovic (1942-2020)
Paris in the summer… quiet walks on the banks of the Seine River; hikes through flower-filled parks; and croissants, rich Camembert, and hearty cassoulets in a cozy apartment on a narrow lane.
Those were memories from 1980 when Mikki Atsatt ’80, Marlys Dewor ’81, and a few other UMD students, traveled with UMD Associate Professor Milan Kovacovich and his family to Paris and other areas in France.
Atsatt said, “Milan could make the simplest things entertaining.” She remembers spending “an entire rainy afternoon" with him and his family in their second floor apartment, "watching people come and go from the boulangerie (bread bakery) on the street below.” She recalls images of “solidly built elderly women emerging with baguettes placed in rolling baskets” and a young man with several baguettes “dropping them in the street, retrieving them, hopping on his bike, and riding away.” They absorbed the French culture by watching people. “It was as important as visiting museums and reading French literature,” she says.
Dewor has a memory of being taken to a “fair” in one of the Paris suburbs where numerous political parties and interest groups “had set up information stands.” At first “Milan… did all the talking,” but when he left them to check things out on their own, she realized, they “were not ready yet to discuss political issues, and certainly not in French!”
Atsatt, Dewor, and their friend Gabriela Gold ’81 all had taken French language classes from Kovacovic. On their travels and in their classes, they learned about French culture, as well as literature, history, and politics.
The Scholarship
The three friends did not forget those lessons. As they embarked on their careers, they united in a commitment to help students at UMD. They named a scholarship in honor of their teacher. "We named it Friends of Milan Kovacovic Scholarship Fund in French Studies," says Dewor.
Kovacovic made an impression on his students. He made learning the French language memorable by weaving stories into the vocabulary lessons. Many recollections made their way into his memoir, Ma’s Dictionary: Straddling the Social Class Divide, which included accounts of his journey from Saint-Aquilin, France, to Paris, to Chicago, and San Francisco. He shared stories of his military service in Germany, and the events that eventually brought him to Duluth, Minnesota.
Sadly, Professor Kovacovic passed away in March 2020. Atsatt, Dewor, and Gold feel comfort in the knowledge that the scholarship in his name lives on.
He will be remembered for his “intellectual curiosity, and for encouraging his students to question assumptions and expand their horizons," says Atsatt. Dewor agreed. "I came to UMD from a small town in Minnesota," she said. "Milan had a tremendous impact on me because he was, among other things, culturally sophisticated and worked to make it possible for his students to have various cultural experiences,” Dewor says.
Atsatt is retired from her career in the U.S. Department of Justice. Gold is a management strategist at the LcHoesGroup in Virginia, and Dewor is retired from civilian service with the U.S. Army and continues to live in Germany.
One weekend retreat remains memorable to these UMD alumnae. On the first weekend of May, the intermediate French class stayed in cabins in northern Minnesota. "That year it snowed in May, and there wasn't any heat," said Dewor. "We still had a great time." And they spoke only French the entire time.