OBITUARIES (04/27/97)

OBITUARIES

Antonina "Tonia" Horokhovych, Plast activist and educator, 84
Msgr. Anthony Borsa, 91, served parishes in six states

Antonina "Tonia" Horokhovych, Plast activist and educator, 84

TORONTO - With the passing of Antonina "Tonia" Horokhovych, North America's Ukrainian community mourns the loss of one of its best known pedagogues. Ms. Horokhovych died at her home on April 3. She was 84.

Ms. Horokhovych was born in Mezhyrych (near Korets), Rivne Oblast in Volyn, Ukraine, on March 2, 1913. She enrolled at the Rivne gymnasium, but because of the Polish regime's anti-Ukrainian pacification campaign, continuing formal studies proved difficult.

However, in 1939, she was accepted for study at the philological faculty of Ivan Franko University in Lviv, where she completed one year of schooling, which was interrupted due to the pressures on the school by Soviet authorities following their annexation of Halychyna.

In 1942-1944, during the German occupation, she was enrolled in the Lviv Technical-Agronomy Institute (LTAI). As the Red Army advanced toward Lviv, Ms. Horokhovych emigrated westward, and completed her studies in agronomy when the LTAI was re-established in Munich in 1946.

Ms. Horokhovych was a member of the Union of Ukrainian Women (Soyuz Ukrainok - SU) from the time she participated in the SU's first congress in 1934. Active in organizing a number of village schools, she was soon drawn into executive positions, acting as secretary, initially at the regional level in Volyn (until the organization was banned by the Polish government in 1938), and then in the underground for the central executive in Lviv, where she served directly under the activist, writer and parliamentarian Milena Rudnytska. Their association continued in Munich.

Ms. Horokhovych came to Canada in 1950, settling in Toronto. She taught at elementary and secondary schools of the Ukrainian National Federation (UNO) in 1957-1967, at the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Ukrainian Studies School in 1977-1983 and at the St. Nicholas School of Ukrainian Studies in 1967-1991. She served on the school board of each. Ms. Horokhovych also tutored pupils privately and trained a considerable number of Ukrainian elementary school teachers.

She also earned an M.A. in literature from Ottawa University in 1964.

Ms. Horokhovych was a member of the Ukrainian Writer's Association Slovo (The Word) and the Association of Workers in Children's Literature (serving as president in 1993-1996), and the Ukrainian Canadian Social Services.

However, Ms. Horokhovych's approach to activism was shaped by her membership in the Plast Ukrainian youth organization. She joined while at the Rivne gymnasium at a time - after 1928 in Volyn, and following 1930 in all Polish-controlled territories - when Plast was an underground organization.

She was active as an instructor for various SU-Plast groups until 1941, then for various training workshops and camps of the Ukrainian Youth Educational Societies (VOSP), since Nazi occupation authorities enforced a strict ban on Plast. She headed Plast's "Ulad Novachok" (akin to girl guides) in Lviv and continued to do so when the organization was reformed in post-war Germany's Displaced Persons camps, as a member of the Supreme Plast Command (Holovna Plastova Bulava).

Upon Ms. Horokhovych's arrival in Canada, she served as the Supreme Plast Command's women's liaison for the country (at a time when the central executive was still in Europe), then as the commander of the Ukrainian national women's scouting order in Canada until 1961, and finally as secretary of Plast's Canadian National Executive until 1974.

Ms. Horokhovych was a central figure in Plast's publishing arm, serving as editor of Hotuys magazine in 1970-1992, as well as on the editorial boards of Yunak magazine and the journal Plastovyi Shliakh.

Ms. Horokhovych's articles were published widely in the émigré Ukrainian-language press, and she wrote monographs on pedagogy ("Batky i Dity," Parents and Children, 1965) and Ukrainian literature ("Poetyka Lesi Ukrainky i Yiyi Aforyzmy," The Poetics of Lesia Ukrainka and Her Aphorisms, 1980).

Funeral services were conducted at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto on April 7, and Ms. Horokhovych's remains were transported for burial in Ukraine, where she was interred in her native Mezhyrych on April 22. She is survived by numerous grandchildren of her six brothers and sisters. Violeta Horokhovych, grandchild of Ms. Horokhovych's brother Fedir, arrived from Ukraine to attend services in Toronto.

Msgr. Anthony Borsa, 91, served parishes in six states

ABERDEEN, N.J. - Msgr. Anthony Borsa passed away at his home in Aberdeen, N.J., on March 12. He was 91. On May 8 Msgr. Borsa would have celebrated 65 years since his ordination into the priesthood.

Born on December 20, 1905, in Tovstenske, Ternopil Oblast, in western Ukraine, he was the son of Anthony and Anna Borsa. He studied philosophy at the theological academy of the Order of St. Basil the Great in Lviv, and completed theological studies at the seminary in Stanislaviv (Ivano-Frankivsk).

On May 8, 1932, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Gregory Khomyshyn at the cathedral in Stanislaviv. He then served three parishes in four years in Ukraine, and arrived in the United States on December 11, 1936.

In the U.S., Msgr. Borsa served numerous parishes, including St. Nicholas in Ukraina, N.D.; St. Demetrius, Gorham, N.D.; St. Nicholas, Hudson, N.Y.; St. John the Baptist, Pittsfield, Mass.; St. Michael, New Haven, Conn.; St. John the Baptist, Pittsburgh; Ss. Peter and Paul, Jersey City, N.J.; and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bayonne, N.J., from which he retired in 1980.

He remained active in the priesthood however, and after his first retirement established the parish of St. Volodymyr the Great in Marlboro, N.J., in 1980, which he served until his final retirement in June 1995.

In addition to his pastoral assignments, Msgr. Borsa also served as the head of the diocesan choir directors, instructor of ritual and music at St. Basil's Seminary in Stamford, Conn., instructor of ritual to the Franciscan Fathers in New Canaan, Conn., spiritual director of the Providence Association, and spiritual director to the Garden State League of Ukrainian Catholics. Msgr. Borsa served as a consultor for the archeparchy and protopresbyter of the Northern New Jersey Deanery.

He also served as chaplain of Ukrainian American Veterans Post 30 in Freehold, N.J., and the Knights of Columbus Father McGivney Council in Lincroft/ Middletown, N.J.

Borsa was named a papal chaplain by Pope John Paul II on September 15, 1980, and was granted the title of reverend monsignor. The title of archpriest was conferred on him by Bishop Basil H. Losten on March 7, 1977, and mitred archpriest by Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky in 1992.

A divine liturgy was concelebrated on March 17 by Metropolitan-Archbishop Stephen Sulyk of Philadelphia and area clergy. The homily was preached by the Rev. Anthony Radchuck, Msgr. Borsa's successor in the Marlboro parish.

During his homily, the Rev. Radchuk spoke of Msgr. Borsa as having dedicated his entire life to serving the Ukrainian people in the United States. He was treasured by all the people touched by his priesthood. "Mrgr. Borsa was like a beautiful flower in a garden. During its lifetime it is enjoyed by all, but because it is a gift from God, it must return to God," said the Rev. Radchuk. Interment was at Holy Spirit Cemetery in Hamptonburgh, N.Y.

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