OBITUARY: Myroslaw Chrin, 49, Detroit area activist (06/23/96)

OBITUARY

Myroslaw Chrin, 49, Detroit area activist

by Jaroslav Berezowsky

DETROIT - Myroslaw Chrin, 49, of Sterling Heights, Mich., died on May 1, of pancreatic cancer.

He was born in Germany on August 3, 1946, and with his parents settled in Hamtramck, Mich., in 1951. He attended the Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Schools and the Hamtramck Public Schools. As a child and youth he belonged to the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM-A) and participated in sports, dance and music classes. He also played the bandura.

Mr. Chrin attended Wayne State University and graduated in 1970 with a major in political science, a subject that always fascinated him. While at Wayne State, Mr. Chrin was a member, and eventually president, of the Slavic Club and of the Ukrainian Student Organization (TUSM), and co-editor of a student magazine, Helianthus.

For a time, Mr. Chrin was employed as a social services consultant with the Polish American Congress, Michigan Branch, and in that capacity provided counsel and assistance to hundreds of residents in the Detroit area. He was knowledgeable in the field of immigration law and procedures, and selflessly assisted many recent immigrants from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia.

Mr. Chrin was an enthusiastic and active member of many organizations during his life. In the 1970s and 1980s he was actively involved in the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Ukraine. In 1983, he traveled to New Orleans to join others in an unsuccessful effort to obtain freedom for Myroslav Medvid, whom the Coast Guard had shamelessly turned over to the Soviets, notwithstanding his passionate plea for asylum in the U.S.

In 1991, Mr. Chrin spent several months in Ukraine, and energetically participated in the campaign that resulted in the referendum of December 1, 1991, that upheld Ukraine's independence.

While in Odessa, he met Svetlana Ageeva, an accomplished ballerina and classical choreographer, who was later to became his wife.

Mr. Chrin was a board member of the Michigan Chapter of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council, and attended several of its national conventions. He hosted several Ukrainian political dissidents during their visits to the Detroit area, including Valentyn Moroz, Leonid Plyusch and Danylo Shumuk. He helped organize a number of commemorations of the Chornobyl tragedy, and an observance of the Great Famine of 1933.

Mr. Chrin was also a regular participant in the Polish-Jewish-Ukrainian Dialogue committee of Metropolitan Detroit, a small group fostering communication and good relations between the three communities, which sponsored annual observances of the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland.

He also served as a host for Yakiv Suslensky, president of the Israeli-Ukrainian Friendship Society based in Jerusalem, when the latter visited the Ukrainian community in Detroit.

The deceased was a parishioner of the St. Andrew Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Detroit, and served several terms as president of the church council. He was also a member of the Auditing Committee of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the United States.

Mr. Chrin and Ms. Ageeva were married in 1993. In 1995, the couple founded a classical dance school in Sterling Heights, known as The Talent Factory. Mr. Chrin was understandably proud of his wife's artistic talents and accomplishments and served as administrator of the school.

Mr. Chrin is survived by his wife and three very young children: Marusia, Yurij and Myroslawa. His youngest child was born the day before his death. Also surviving are his parents, Andrew and Maria Chrin; sister, Irene Rapach, and her husband, William; brothers, Roman and Jaroslaw, the latter with his wife Lydia; three nieces; and well as extended family in the United States, Canada and Ukraine.

Funeral services were held on May 4 at the St. Andrew Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Detroit. Bishop Alexander Bykovetz officiated. Burial was at the Resurrection Cemetery in Mt. Clemens, Mich.

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