Andrija Puharich

Andrija Puharich
Puharich in 1959
Born	Henry Karel Puharić February 19, 1918 Chicago, Illinois
Died	January 3, 1995(1995-01-03) (aged 76) Dobson, North Carolina
Residence	"Devotion" (R. J. Reynolds Family Estate)
Education	Philosophy/Pre-Med (1943) Doctor of Medicine (1947)
Alma mater	Northwestern University
Occupation	Inventor, Parapsychologist, Physician
Spouse(s)	Rebecca Alban Hoffberger (divorced) Bep Hermans
Children	2

Andrija Puharich (February 19, 1918 – January 3, 1995) — born Henry Karel Puharić — was a medical and parapsychological researcher, medical inventor, physician and author, known as the person who brought Israeli Uri Geller (born 1946) and Dutch-born Peter Hurkos (1911-1988) to the United States for scientific investigation.

Puharich was born in Chicago, Illinois, one of seven children born to Croatian immigrants. His father had emigrated from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, entering the U.S. in 1912 as a stowaway. At home Karel's parents always called him "Andrija," which apparently wasn't his name at birth but just his parents' nickname for him. When Karel, as a young boy, started attending school, his parents enrolled him under the name "Henry Karl Puharich," feeling he would be more easily accepted with that name than with the foreign-sounding name "Karel Puharić." Thereafter he often signed his name as "Henry Karl Puharich." He didn't start using his nickname "Andrija" as his first name until sometime in the later part of his life.

During World War II, Puharich attended Northwestern University as a student in the Army Specialized Training Program. He earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and pre-medicine in 1943 and received his M.D. from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1947. His residency was completed at the Permanente Research Foundation in Oakland, California, where he specialized in internal medicine. From 1953 to 1955, he served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps; in this capacity, he was assigned as Chief, Outpatient Service, U.S. Army Dispensary, Army Chemical Center, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. By this time he was already presenting papers on the possible military usefulness of paranormal phenemona.