Dr. Nicholas P. Lovrich, Ph.D. was born in 1944 and raised in San Pedro. He recounts learning Croatian language and how playing baseball inspired his life and future success.
Child of parents who emigrated from the town of Crikvenica in Croatia, married in Vancouver British Columbia in 1941, and then settled in San Pedro. He recounts about learning the Croatian language to keep connection to Croatia and local family, and English for school of course.
Often called “Nicky” he attended Bandini Street Elementary School, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Junior High School, and San Pedro High School (SPHS), class of S’62. He was the captain of the of SPHS baseball team that played for the championship of LA. City Schools in 1962, coached by Jerry Lovarov. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (cum laude graduate) in International Relations from Leland Stanford Junior University, class of 1966; and earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1971.
His academic background is impressive including writing or co-author/co-editor of thirteen books and more than two hundred peer-reviewed articles in journals in criminal justice, political science, and public administration. He served as the principal investigator on numerous grants from foundations and federal and state government agencies, and served as chair of 30 Ph.D. dissertation committees over the course of his academic career.
He remains active in retirement as a collaborator on research projects with several of his former doctoral students in both Political Science and in Criminal Justice.
He currently resides in Pullman, Washington with his wife of 57 years Katherine whom he met while both were students at Stanford’s campus in Florence, Italy in 1966.