OBITUARIES (08/11/96)

OBITUARIES

Marta Shmigel, 56, multi-faceted community activist

by Irene Jarosewich

SHORT HILLS. N.J. - She was gutsy and determined; she worked hard her entire life to build on her vision of Ukraine as a self-confident participant in the arena of world history. For people throughout the Ukrainian diaspora who had worked with her over the years, the death on May 28 of Marta Shmigel at age 56, from the dreaded disease of cancer, came as a shock. Until the final weeks, few knew she was gravely ill. She kept working on her vision into her final months.

For more than 30 years, she persevered in her fund-raising and organizing efforts among her Ukrainian American community in Rochester, N.Y., as well as other communities in the U.S. She encouraged, insisted, prodded, cajoled people into providing support for a variety of efforts, from the early days of the campaign to establish an endowment for the Harvard Ukrainian Studies Fund, initiated by Omeljan Pritsak, until her recent efforts on behalf of the Children of Chornobyl.

A native of Berezhany, Ukraine, Marta Stephania Kramarchuk was a young child when her parents left Ukraine at the end of World War II. After several years in the displaced persons, camps in Germany, her family settled in Rochester, N.Y., in 1949. She met her husband, Borys Shmigel, a medical doctor, while they were both still in high school, and after college and a few years in California, she returned to Rochester. She and Mr. Shmigel married in 1966; Rochester would be home for the rest of her life.

Her resumé of community activism is impressive. She was a longtime member of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, Branch 46, and served on the UNWLA national board. Besides helping to raise funds for the Harvard endowment, she undertook community efforts to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Great Famine, as well as organize Millennium celebrations. She was a lifelong member of St. Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Church, and of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Organization.

She was involved with the Democratic Party in the state of New York, and was a volunteer for the Rochester General Hospital Foundation, as well as at a local center for disadvantaged and learning disabled children.

In 1991, she was the recipient of the Woman of the Year award from the Ukrainian American Business and Professionals Association of Rochester.

A colleague from the UNWLA, Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, described Ms. Shmigel as "proud of her Ukrainian heritage, a fusion of where she came from, integrated into the modern American woman - very savvy."

However, despite all her work in the previous decades, Ms. Shmigel became particularly responsive to the opportunities offered by Ukraine's independence. In 1990, she became one of the founders and a key member of the organizing committee of the Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine, and later, a member of its executive. Volodymyr Burachynsky, also a founding member, appraised her efforts as "absolutely critical to the success of the committee in those early years."

It is through her involvement with CCAU that I personally came to know and respect Ms. Shmigel. Through her efforts and the warm support of the Rochester community, I was able to work in Kyiv during 1991-1993 in the Information Division of Rukh, the democratic movement in Ukraine. Specifically, I supplied information to foreign correspondents about Ukraine and about Rukh. The entire world wanted to know about this new phenomenon called Ukraine. More than 700 correspondents registered in Rukh's press center during those early months of independence.

Ms. Shmigel foresaw the possibility of increased media attention and understood the need to have bilingual professionals work with the media. She worked hard to have the diaspora support a press center in Rukh, an effort that was prescient on her part, and one for which I will always be grateful. Truly, much of the credit for the positive press coverage received by Rukh in the English-language press can be directly credited to the efforts of Ms. Shmigel and the Rochester community.

Soon after independence was established, Ms. Shmigel put her energies into the next logical step, assistance for the Ukrainian Embassy in the U.S. and New York Consulate General. Working as part of a small organizing committee, close to $1.6 million was raised for the effort.

She also undertook fund-raising efforts to alleviate some of the disastrous consequences of the Chornobyl explosion. She was instrumental in collecting more than $40,000 for the purchase of six neonatal incubators. In August 1992 she traveled with the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund airlift that transported these incubators to Ukraine, which, according to Alex Kuzma of the CCRF, "are still helping to save the lives of infants in Kyiv and Krasniy Luch, Luhanske."

She was convinced that setting and meeting high expectations, living by your convictions and maintaining personal dignity would prevail over obstacles. An intelligent woman, she lived her life with ambition, and found it incomprehensible that others would not want to do the same. She would listen to others, but did not fear criticism of her opinions. She was blessed with an inherent sense of dignity.

Marta Shmigel is survived by her husband of 30 years, Borys; her parents, Ivan and Maria Kramarchuk; a younger brother, Oleh, and his family.

Memorial donations may be sent to the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund via a local account established at the Ukrainian credit union in Rochester (Account No. 107123).

Ihor Suchoversky, 68, aeronautical engineer, executive

TORONTO - Ihor Suchoversky, an aeronautical engineer and corporate executive, died at a local hospital on July 19 after a battle with cancer. He was 68.

Born on July 27, 1927, in Chernivtsi, Mr. Suchoversky escaped westward with his family in the face of the Soviet advance in 1944. He studied at the United Nations' Relief and Rehabilitation Administration's university in Munich (1945-1947), then at Leuven University in Belgium (1947-1949), and obtained a master's in mechanical and aeronautical engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland (1951).

On September 1, 1947, Mr. Suchoversky and Bohdan Jaciw became the first two Ukrainians to climb Europe's highest peak, Mont Blanc in France.

In 1952, while in Rorschach, Switzerland, Mr. Suchoversky secured a position with Alcan-Aluminum Ltd., and after emigrating to Canada in 1953, he continued to work for the Montreal-based multinational corporation, assuming various technical and managerial positions at plants based in Montreal, Kingston (Ontario), Cleveland and Oswego (New York).

In 1975, Mr. Suchoversky was transferred to Geneva as area general manager and vice-president of operations for Europe, where he served until July 1982, when he returned to Montreal and was appointed vice-president for research and development, and president of Alcan International Ltd. (until 1989).

Mr. Suchoversky also served on the board of directors of Spar Aeorospace Ltd., the Lanxide Corp. and the Nippon Light Metal Co. Ltd. He was also a member of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences and the Engineering Institute of Canada and a companion of the British Institute of Management.

From 1990, Mr. Suchoversky traveled to Ukraine as a consultant on behalf of the International Management Institute. In 1992, he was inducted into the Academy of Engineering Sciences of Ukraine.

Mr. Suchoversky was a longtime member of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Organization, and a founding member of its Burlaky fraternity.

Funeral services were conducted at St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in South Bound Brook, N.J., on July 27, and interment followed at the adjacent cemetery.

He is survived by his wife, Marusia; daughters Tamara and Katrusia; grandson Andriy; brother Boris in Germany; and mourned by members of the Suchoversky, Skrypnyk, Yarovenko, Petliura and Vitkovytsky families, friends and colleagues.

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