Winnipeg's Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies honors benefactors (07/25/99)

Winnipeg's Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies honors benefactors

WINNIPEG - The Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies honored major benefactors at a reception on June 24 at St. Andrew's College. Benefactors and friends of the center attended the reception, which was hosted by Dr. Natalia Aponiuk, director of the center.

Special guests included Dr. Emoke Szathmary, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manitoba, and Metropolitan Wasyly, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada and chancellor of St. Andrew's College.

After welcoming the guests, Dr. Aponiuk read a tribute to each of the donors. Dr. Szathmary and Metropolitan Wasyly then presented the honorees with certificates acknowledging their generous support in the preservation of the Ukrainian heritage in Canada.

Seven donors were honored. The late Walter Bohonos and Helen Bohonos contributed $10,000 to the Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies Endowment Fund to assist in the development of the center's programs. Several donors contributed to the establishment of scholarships for high scholastic achievement in Ukrainian Canadian Heritage Studies. The late Steve Dawyduk donated $25,000; Nellie Pawlik and the late Andrew Pawlik initially donated $10,000; and Anne Smigel donated $15,000. Ms. Smigel's donation was matched by 50 percent through the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative. Profs. Iraida and Michael Tarnaweckys' donation of $10,000 established a visiting lectureship in Ukrainian philology and technology.

The late Mr. Bohonos was the choirmaster of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in 1952-1994. He had previously been the choir conductor of St. Michael's Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He gained further distinction in musical circles as the conductor of the Ukrainian Male Chorus of Winnipeg. His passion was liturgical music, and his choral arrangements can be heard in many Orthodox churches throughout North America. His love of Ukrainian folk music manifested itself in the extraordinary success of the Ukrainian Male Chorus. The chorus's performances thrilled audiences for more than 25 years and made an indelible mark on the multicultural musical mosaic of Canada.

Mrs. Bohonos also was principally interested in music. Under the direction of Filmore Hubble, she became an accomplished pianist and performed in many local concerts. From the time of her marriage to Walter Bohonos, she supported him in all his creative endeavors.

Funds for two scholarships at the University of Manitoba were bequeathed by Mr. Dawyduk on his death in 1933. One scholarship was dedicated to the memory of his parents, Nicholas and Annie Dawyduk, to help ensure the existence of the Ukrainian language and culture in Canada.

Nicholas Dawyduk emigrated to Canada in 1912 at the age of 17. He met his future wife, Annie, when, on his arrival in Winnipeg, he went to live with her family, which had emigrated from his home region. Through hard work and study, he acquired his power engineer license and eventually became a senior power engineer. Both Nicholas and Annie were active in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Michael's and later in what is now the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Ivan Suchavsky.

Their sons, William and Steve, both served in World War II. Steve ended his career working with the Department of Veterans' Affairs; William, like his father became a senior power engineer.

The Andrew and Nellie Pawlik Scholarship was established in memory of their younger son, Ivan, upon his death.

Mr. Pawlik was one of the founders and the secretary and president of the Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (1930-1935) and the rector of the Winnipeg Branch of the Peter Mohyla Institute (1931-1932). He was one of the six signatories of the petition requesting the government of Manitoba to incorporate St. Andrew's College in 1946 and was one of the first members of the college's board of directors.

He served as the secretary of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, was a member and served on the boards of the Ukrainian Professional and Business Club, the Ethnic Press Association, the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League and the Ukrainian National Home. He was the manager for many years of the Ukrainian Fraternal Society and president of the board of directors of the Trident Press and the general manager of the Ukrainian Voice.

Mrs. Pawlik has been a member of the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada since 1935 and was one of the organizers in 1941 of the association's Lesia Ukrainka Branch at Holy Trinity Cathedral. Probably her most significant contribution was to the establishment and development of the Manitoba Branch of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, which is located in Saskatoon. Under her leadership, the Manitoba Branch of the museum was opened in 1952, with Mrs. Pawlik coordinating its work as chair of the board and later as curator.

Ms. Smigel has established an endowment fund to commemorate a lifetime devoted to education, including 10 years as a classroom teacher, nine years as a resource teacher, and 25 years as an elementary school principal - the first Canadian-born woman of Ukrainian origin to be appointed to this position in Winnipeg School Division No. 1.

The fund also commemorates those pioneering Ukrainians, like Ms. Smigel's parents, for whom education was a priority. Ms. Smigel began her teaching career in 1933, after graduating from Normal School. In 1947 she became a resource teacher, and for the next five years assessed the children of recently arrived immigrants for placement in grades.

She was appointed principal in 1955. As principal she became increasingly involved in the community, including service at Logan House, the Senior Day Center, and as a founding member of Creative Retirement Manitoba. As a member of the Inner City Community Services, she worked towards the construction of Seven Oaks Hospital. At William Whyte and Lord Nelson she organized courses for parents to teach them budgeting, cooking and sewing.

She was education chair of the Council of Women in Winnipeg, was a volunteer at the Ukrainian Cultural and Education Center, worked towards the construction of the Centennial Auditorium, where she has endowed two chairs, was a founding member of Altrusa International and is an active member of Alpha Omega, which elected her as the first Ukrainian Woman of the Year in 1979-1980. In 1967 she was awarded the Confederation Medal for Teaching and in 1980 the Certificate of Community Service by the City of Winnipeg. On its 125th anniversary the Winnipeg School Division honored her as an outstanding educator.

Profs. Michael and Iraida Tarnawecky enjoyed illustrious careers at the University of Manitoba - he in the department of electrical engineering and she in the department of German and Slavic studies.

Prof. Michael Tarnawecky has done extensive research in electrical power systems. He is the author or co-author of 60 papers and holds six patents. He taught hundreds of engineering students and engineers and supervised close to 40 graduate and post-graduate students. He was instrumental in the introduction of the doctoral program in electrical engineering and developed a new area of specialization - power system engineering.

Prof. Tarnawecky has been a member of and served on the executives of many professional associations. He has served as a consultant to the governments of Manitoba and Canada and for engineering firms in England, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Germany and Brazil. He also taught courses for professional engineers in Czecho-Slovakia, Brazil, India and China. Prof. Tarnawecky has served on the Senate and board of directors of St. Andrew's College, the National Executive of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian Professional and Business Federation of Canada, the Presidium of the Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, and, most recently, as the president of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences of Canada. On his retirement in 1993, Prof. Tarnawecky was named professor emeritus.

Prof. Iraida Tarnawecky has done significant research, most notably on Cyrillic manuscripts and old printings found in Canada and of the linguistic changes the Ukrainian language has undergone in Canada. She showed that linguistic interference shaped a distinctly Canadian variant of Ukrainian. Dr. Tarnawecky has written four books and over 70 articles. She is the recipient of numerous research grants, including one from the Canada Council to do research in the linguistic institutes of Moscow and Kyiv.

Dr. Tarnawecky served on the election committee of the Canada Council for Doctoral Fellowships (three terms) and on the Senior High Ukrainian Curriculum Committee of the Manitoba Department of Education, and was an examiner for special credit courses in high school Polish and Ukrainian. She has been a visiting professor at the Ukrainian Free University and at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Tarnawecky is a member of and has served on the executives of the Canadian Association of Slavists, the Canadian Society for the Study of Names, the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences of Canada, the Research Institute of Volyn, the Alpha Omega Women's Alumnae and the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada.

Following the introduction of the honorees and the presentation of the certificates, Dr. Szathmary, on behalf of the University of Manitoba, expressed her gratitude to the donors, noting that their donations to the Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies form an important milestone in the preservation of the Ukrainian heritage in Canada.

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