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Professor Emeritus Boka Hadzija Dies, Taught at School for Forty Years

Divisions Faculty Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics,
Grayson Mendenhall
June 10, 2013


boka-hadzija
Professor Emeritus Boka Hadzija

Professor Emeritus Boka Hadzija, who retired from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 2009 after forty years, died unexpectedly on Sunday, June 9. A memorial service will be held Saturday, June 22, at the Newman Catholic Student Center at 218 Pittsboro Street in Chapel Hill.

“Of all her many accomplishment, what we remember most—and for what she would most want to be remembered—was her passion for teaching and for her students,” says Bob Blouin, dean of the School. “She was a woman known for her deep compassion, iron determination, expansive intellect, and engaging humor.”

Hadzija earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in pharmacy from the University of Zagreb in the former country of Yugoslavia. Before coming to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hadzija taught at the University of Science and Technology in Ghana and conducted research at the University of London.

She joined the School in September 1971. What was supposed to be a one-year sabbatical from her position in Ghana and London turned into a thirty-eight-year career in Chapel Hill, during which she made her mark as a teacher. By the time Hadzija retired in August 2009, she had received thirty-nine awards from the School and the University, including

  • three Tanner Faculty Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1975, 1988, 1995);
  • the 1996 UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching;
  • three Edward Kidder Graham Teaching Awards (2002, 2004, 2005) from the UNC General Alumni Association;
  • the 2003 Edward Kidder Graham Advising Award;
  • the 2005 C. Knox Massey Distinguished Award, one of the most coveted distinctions bestowed by the University;
  • the 2007 University Professor of Distinguished Teaching Award, one of the University’s highest recognitions for teaching excellence; and
  • the 2007 Graduate School Dean’s Award for Significant Contributions to Graduate Education.

In 2000, Hadzija created and funded an award to recognize distinguished University service by graduate and professional students.

The University Gazette documented Hazija’s career—including her path out from behind the Iron Curtain—in this 2005 article.

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