FACES AND PLACES: "Taras Bulba" is dead (08/19/01)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

"Taras Bulba" is dead

I knew I would be writing this article eventually, writing about the death of "Taras Bulba," my father, the man who lived to be a hundred and who nurtured me throughout my life.

That he died on the eve of the 10th anniversary of his beloved Ukraine's independence seems appropriate.

My dad, Stephen Kuropas, passed away on the morning of Saturday, August 11. He died quietly in his sleep in his own bed, in his own room, a dignified death, no lingering pain, no tortured nights, just sleep. He died as he had lived, in his own way, in his own time.

For most of the last six years he lived with Lesia and me. Although his age suggested that the end was near, his death was still a shock. Given his longevity and his health (people who met him recently invariably declared, "he doesn't look a hundred"), we somehow believed that he would live to be the oldest man in the world.

As I've written many times before, Tato was the mythical Taras Bulba for me all of my life. Long before I attended school, I knew all about the heroic Taras Bulba, how he always fought for Ukraine's freedom against the Russians, the Turks, the Tartars, and the Poles, and, most important of all, how he built a merry-go-around on the Sich specifically for young American-born children who did not forget the Ukrainian language and remained true to their parents' traditions. It was all make-believe, of course, but it didn't matter. I was a kid and I loved it.

Tato was born on October 1, 1900 in Selyska, Ukraine. He served in the Austrian army during the First World War and the Ukrainian Galician army during hostilities with Poland. His unit ended up in Czechoslovakia where, thanks to the benevolent graces of the newly established Czechoslovak government, he was able to attend Charles University in Prague, completing a degree in agronomy. After working for a time as an agricultural engineer in Lichtenstein, he returned to Ukraine, then under Polish occupation, and was drafted into the Polish army. He deserted and left for the United States.

He arrived in America in 1927, on the eve of the Great Depression. He settled first in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he lived with a distant cousin and worked in a furniture factory. Later he moved to Chicago where he hoped to find work in his chosen profession. No such luck. He took whatever employment he could find, working at various day jobs. This included part-time employment in the Chicago stock yards and a chocolate factory.

In time Tato was hired by the Standard Oil Company as a service station attendant. He remained with the company and later spent forty years operating his own service station in downtown Chicago. For years, but especially during the depression, he worked 12 and 16 hour shifts in all kinds of weather. Chicago isn't exactly sun city in the winter.

Although he lived and worked in town, he always yearned for the country, for a farm he could call his own. During his lifetime he bought and sold a farm in Michigan as well as in Wisconsin. The latter was a dairy farm operated by hired help. Tato spent many a weekend overseeing his "country estate."

It was his volunteer Ukrainian activities, however, that gave Tato his greatest satisfaction. He met my mother, Antoinette Mehal, while he was the assistant editor of Ukraina, a Chicago-based newspaper edited by the legendary Dr. Volodymyr Simenovycz, a Ukrainian-American pioneer. Dad married mom in 1931.

Soon after arriving in the United States, Tato joined the Ukrainian National Association, becoming one of the UNA's most active members. He was elected a UNA supreme controller at the 1937 convention and supreme vice-president in 1961. He organized hundreds of new members, established seven new branches, managed a UNA baseball team even though he knew little about baseball, and was a frequent contributor to Svoboda where he penned a regular column titled "The Chicago Chronicle." He was also the first president of the UNA Seniors. He was very proud of the fact that his son and grandson were also elected UNA vice-presidents.

Tato became involved with the Ukrainian Veterans' Organization (UVO) soon after his arrival in Chicago. When Col. Evhen Konovalets, head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), suggested that all of the UVO branches in the United States unite to form a new organization, the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine (ODWU), Tato became an officer in ODWU Branch #2. He remained loyal to ODWU all of his life, serving as editor for many years of Samostina Ukrayina, an ODWU publication.

Never forgetting the difficulties he faced as a new immigrant to the United States, Tato became active in the United Ukrainian Relief Committee (UUARC), an organization involved with the resettlement of Ukrainian displaced persons after World War II. He sponsored over a hundred families to the United States and found employment for dozens of new immigrants in Chicago. Housing was at such a premium at the time that many displaced persons and their families slept on cots in the old UNA home on Western Avenue while they waited for permanent housing. Even today there are people who walk up to me at various Ukrainian functions and tell me that they will never forget what my father did for them.

My father enjoyed life, had a great sense of humor, and was often asked to serve as master of ceremonies at various functions. During his prime his friends often referred to him as the "Ukrainian Bob Hope."

My father was part of the greatest Ukrainian generation, that special group of patriotic Ukrainians in America who survived the depression, defamation by America's communists, FBI investigations during the 1930's and 1940's, media slander of Ukrainian nationalism, and somehow managed to persevere, to remain optimistic, and to live to see Ukraine rise from the ashes.

Tato received many honors during his lifetime including the Shevchenko Freedom Award from the Ukrainian Congress Commmitee in 1972, as well as "hramotas" from the UNA District Committee of Chicago, ODWU, and the Encyclopedia of the Ukrainian Diaspora.

My father was preceeded in death by my mother. In addition to Lesia and me, he is survived by his daughter Vera, five grandchildren - Christine, Katherine, Stefko, Michael, Tamara - and nine great grandchildren.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is mbkuropas@compuserve.com.

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