2003: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Our community mourns their passing (01/11/04)

2003: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Our community mourns their passing

During 2003 we learned of the deaths of many prominent Ukrainians. Among them were the following people who were engaged in diverse fields of endeavor.

Omelian Mazuryk, 65, Ukrainian Lemko-born artist and iconographer - Paris, November 13, 2002.
Halyna Andreadis, noted opera singer, community activist - Washington, December 28, 2002.
Oleh Nyzhankivsky, 79, opera and concert singer, soloist in Swiss opera theaters from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1980s - Geneva, Switzerland, January 8.
Serhii Naboka, 47, independent radio journalist and political activist, former Soviet political prisoner - Vinnytsia, Ukraine, January 18.
Michael J. Metrinko, 93, first Ukrainian American member of the New York Stock Exchange as well as the NYSE's oldest and longest serving - member Atlanta, January 12.
Stefanie Pawliw (née Stefa Mileniczuk), 88, survivor of Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920, imprisoned as 15-month old child with her parents in the Spirit Lake concentration camp - Cowansville, Quebec, January 28.
Father Werenfried van Straaten, 90, a Norbertine monk, founder of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the largest Church aid organization of the post-war period, that initiated support for Christians and Churches persecuted or banned under the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, including the Ukrainian Catholic Church - Bad Soden, Germany, January 31.
Leonida Svitlychna, 79, an engineer by profession and wife of the eminent Ukrainian poet, literary critic, human rights activist and political prisoner Ivan Svitlychny - Kyiv, February 18.
Dr. Dmytro Cipywnyk, 75, psychiatrist and former president of the Ukrainian World Congress - Saskatoon, March 9.
Yaroslava (Slava) Stetsko, 83, founder and chairman of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, former leader of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations; and oldest member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada - Munich, March 12.
Anna Haras, 82, former supreme advisor of the Ukrainian National Association and honorary member of the UNA General Assembly - Bethlehem, Pa., March 31.
Taras Protsyuk, 35, noted Ukrainian journalist and cameraman for the Reuters news agency - killed as a result of a shell attack by a U.S. tank on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, April 8.
Oleksander Kryvenko, 39, leading Ukrainian journalist, founder and editor/director of prime broadcast, radio and print media outlets, including Hromadske Radio; the television news programs "Vikno" and "Studio 1+1"; the Lviv newspaper Post-Postup; and the Kyiv magazine Polityka i Kultura - killed in an automobile accident outside Kyiv, April 9.
Vasyl Barka, 95, noted poet, writer, literary critic and translator - Liberty, N.Y., April 11.
Martha Kulchytsky-Andriuk, 68, opera singer and Ukrainian community activist and benefactor - Washington, April 7.
Dr. Stephen Sydoriak, 85, distinguished physicist and researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory - Los Alamos, New Mexico, May 15.
Stefan Golash, 84, member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and political coordinator of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists command structure in Lemkivschyna; executive board member of the veterans of the UPA; and Ukrainian American Youth Association activist - Palatine, Ill., May 28.
Myron W. Surmach, 71, owner of the landmark Surma Book and Music Co., established by his father in 1918 - New York, July 4.
Dr. Ilarion Kalynewych, 92, librarian, scholar, artist and benefactor - Silver Spring, Md., July 10.
Bishop Isidore Borecky, 91, first Ukrainian Catholic eparch of Toronto and Eastern Canada - Toronto, July 23.
Yuri Khymych, 75, leading Ukrainian artist, especially noted for his imaginative paintings of the architectural legacy of Ukraine, foremostly churches, as well as landscapes - Kyiv, July 23.
Olena W. Stercho, 48, lawyer and human rights activist, member of the Ukrainian Human Rights Committee, founding member of the Ukrainian American Nautical Association Inc. - Philadelphia, September 2.
Wasyl Didiuk, 88, honorary member of the Ukrainian National Association General Assembly, former UNA supreme advisor and supreme auditor, and the UNA's longtime chief organizer in Canada - Toronto, September 17.
Oresta Hryciw Kowcz, 38, banking executive, Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization leader and active member of Cleveland's Ukrainian community - died of injuries sustained in a car crash in Royal Oak, Mich., October 7.
Bishop Augustine Hornyak, OSBM, S.T.D., J.C.B., 84, apostolic exarch for Ukrainian Catholics in Great Britain - London, November 16.
The Rev. Patrick Paschak, longtime pastor of St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in New York City, former provincial superior of the Basilian Fathers (1970-1982) and vicar general of the Stamford Eparchy - New York, November 25.
Bohdan Koziy, 80, former U.S. resident, awaiting extradition to Poland, where he was to stand trial on war crimes charges - Costa Rica, December 1.
Dr. Miroslav Labunka, 76, rector of the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany (1995-1998), Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (1998) and retired professor of history at Philadelphia's La Salle University (1965-1993) - Philadelphia, December 2.
Maria Cisyk, 58, pianist, music teacher, performance coach and performing arts medicine consultant - Ridgefield, Conn., December 6.
Dr. Myroslav Prokop, 90, lawyer, political activist, and publicist; former member of the Oganization of Ukrainian Nationalists leadership; founding member of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council, member of its presidium and vice-president of its External Representation; and vice-president of the Prolog Research Corp. - New York, December 7.
Bohdan Kolinsky, 49, sports editor at The Hartford Courant - South Windsor, Conn., December 14.
Liuboslav Hutsaliuk, 80, Ukrainian-born artist, known for his neo-impressionist oil paintings of cityscapes, landscapes and still lifes, who worked in New York and Paris - New York, December 16.
Renata Babak, 69, Kyiv-born internationally known mezzo-soprano, who defected from the Bolshoi Opera in 1973, and made her U.S. debut in Carnegie Hall in 1975 - Silver Spring, Md., December 31.

| Home Page |