As a 9-year-old boy with no understanding of English, he moved with his mother and younger brother from the village of Mokrine, in Montenegro, to meet up with his father and older brother living in Gold Field, Nev. After arriving on Ellis Island by boat, Kosich and his family took a train out West, where his father was a miner. "We came for a better life," he says. "Over there, it's nice, but not like the good old U.S.A. You can't compare it."

Kosich was soon enrolled in school, which was daunting at first. "I didn't know what the teachers were saying, and I used to cry all the time," he recalls. "But little by little I learned and caught up."

After sixth grade, Kosich quit school to work in a restaurant. At 14 years old, he moved with his family to Sparks, Nev., where he, his father and older brother began laying railroad for Southern Pacific Railroad. The railways had proved to be a booming business, with the mines closing due to World War I.

Two years later, in 1919, the family left Nevada and moved to Santa Clara Valley. Kosich began work in the canning factories and then moved with his brothers to Los Gatos, where they leased a ranch to farm prunes and cherries.

Kosich says he always loved farming because "ranching was the best place for your health during those days. The atmosphere was clean and the area was clear." The only trouble in maintaining ranchland in the summit area of Los Gatos was the rough horse and buggy ride to get into town.

In 1934, Kosich married Danica "Dorothy" Jaich through an arrangement with her father. The two were wed without dating, but stayed together for 63 years, until his wife passed away in 1998. It was also in 1934 that Kosich and his two brothers bought a 40-acre ranch, on what is now the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Lawrence Expressway. The entire family lived on the ranch, including Danica, who quickly became part of the family.

Kosich says his family was always very close-knit, and all stuck together except for during World War II, when his brother was shipped out with the U.S. Air Force and three of his nephews were drafted. Kosich was one year past drafting age, but enlisted to help at the Moore Dry Dock in Oakland for two years until the war ended. Kosich lost his hearing at the docks, and one of his nephews was killed in the Philippines, but his brother and two other nephews eventually returned.

In 1946 Kosich and his wife had Radoyka, their only child. That same year, to further support the family ranch, Kosich went to work with his brother for the Moreland School District. He drove the buses for disabled children until 1966, when Kosich retired from work and ranching, sold the property and moved into the house he still lives in today, on Saratoga Avenue.

At the time of purchase, the home Kosich owns straddled the city lines of Saratoga and San Jose. It was decided by city officials that the area he chose to be a part of would serve as the city boundary. Ultimately, Kosich chose to be part of Saratoga, as the city offered the family an opportunity to name several streets. His brothers decided to name one after him, Obrad Drive, his daughter, Radoyka Drive, and one for the family, Kosich Drive.

Kosich says he loved the city back then, when Saratoga was acres of orchards and natural land. "It is very different now, it's strange," he says. "I feel bad because all of the good land was built over."

Although the landscape may have changed, Kosich still maintains a piece of his youth with his own backyard garden, where he grows tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and spinach.

He also maintains his health by keeping busy with several organizations, such as the Serbian Benevolent Society of San Francisco, the Slovenian American Benevolent Society, and the St. Michael Serbian Orthodox Church of Saratoga. "I'm always anxious to do something," he says with a smile. "I think that's why I lived so long. I feel like jumping up and getting out. Of course now I really only go around the house."

Kosich comes from a family full of longevity—his father died at 92 years old and his mother at 103.

"My mother used to say to my brothers and me, 'My sons, I wish you all to live to 100.' And I used to say back, 'Mother, I'd be lucky to live to 50,' " he says. "But by golly, I guess all her praying worked."