OBITUARIES
Stepan Woroch, 81, dentist who championed myriad causes
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. - Dr. Stepan Woroch, a dentist by profession and a prominent Ukrainian community activist and leader, died on January 2, at the age of 81.
A lifelong activist for various Ukrainian causes, encompassing the full gamut of professional, religious, civic as well as cultural and academic endeavors, Dr. Woroch was a well-known and hihgly esteemed figure in the Ukrainian community.
A former president of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America, Metropolitan New York Chapter, he held the position of external affairs director on the executive board of UMANA, a position in which he served for 35 years. He was also an honorary member of the Ukrainian Medical Association.
As board member of UMANA and the Vasyl Lypynsky East-European Research Institute of Philadelphia, Dr. Woroch served as representative to the World Congress of Free Ukrainians.
Among the numerous projects in which he was engaged or which he spearheaded were those undertaken by the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Encyclopedia of Ukraine.
Dr. Woroch chaired, for 10 years, the Millennium of Rus'-Ukraine Christianity Committee - The Harvard Project; and was a driving force behind the landmark Ravenna Congress organized by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and financed by the Millennium committee that brought together the world's leading scholars. He was also a donor to the Ukrainian Studies Fund.
He was also engaged in such programs as Ridna Shkola (Ukrainian School), Tserkva v Potrebi (Church in Need) and, more recently, funding-raising campaigns to facilitate the opening of Ukraine's Consulate in New York and its Embassy in Washington, as well as the campaign to save the Verkhovyna resort in Glen Spey, N.Y.
Dr. Woroch was born January 6, 1921, in the village of Kryvenke, western Ukraine, the son of Dmytro and Maria (née Velychenko). Typical of his generation, already as a university student, he was arrested at various times by Polish, German and Soviet military police for engaging in Ukrainian nationalist activities.
He began his medical studies in Lviv, but, with the outbreak of war and the Soviet occupation of western Ukraine, he fled his homeland, ending up in the displaced persons camps in Germany. He completed his studies in Munich and, upon emigrating to the United States, received his doctorate in dental surgery from New York University. Upon finishing his service in the U.S. Army in 1960, with the rank of captain, Dr. Woroch opened a private practice in Newark, N.J.
Predeceased by his fist wife, Stefania Maniovska, Dr. Woroch is survived by his second wife, Oksana Vanchytska; four children, 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held January 5, with interment at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 21, 2002, No. 16, Vol. LXX
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