OBITUARY: Anthony Koltuniuk, engineer, Ukrainian activist, 55

CHICAGO - Anthony R. Koltuniuk, 55, a civil engineer and a lifelong supporter of Ukrainian causes, died on December 12, 2003, at Northwestern Hospital, after a brief illness.

Known as "Tosko" to his friends and family, Mr. Koltuniuk was born on April 25, 1948, to the late Lubomyr and Teodora (née Kopanycka) Koltuniuk in a displaced persons camp in Salzburg, Austria. A year later, the family emigrated to the United States, settling in Denver, where father and son shared a love of fishing, camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Colorado in 1969, Mr. Koltuniuk completed a master's degree in environmental engineering at the school three years later, while working on public works projects for the Army Corps of Engineers.

In 1972 he joined Bauer Engineering in Chicago, where he contributed to the design of the regional land treatment system in Muskegon County, Michigan; the design and resident engineering on the Galena Territory dam; and the outfall-intake design for the Deep Tunnel in Chicago.

In 1974 he joined Ryan Inc. in Janesville, Wis., as a project manager for road construction work, including sections of the interstate system in Wisconsin. Returning to the Chicago area, he was a principal in two firms that provided engineering and construction management services for hundreds of major projects in the Chicago area, including the Poplar Creek Music Theater in Hoffman Estates, the Hamilton Lakes office complex in Itasca, and the cellular communications site network for Ameritech Mobile Communications. Recently, Mr. Koltuniuk was employed as chief civil engineer at Larson Engineering of Illinois before leaving in 2002 to open his own consulting firm.

Active in the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization since childhood, Mr. Koltuniuk was a co-founder of the Plast fraternity Pobratymy and a beloved guide and role model for hundreds of younger "plastuny." Like his father, Lubomyr, who died in April 2003, he was active in various patriotic and humanitarian activities. He was a founding member of the Chicago Business and Professional Group and was instrumental in organizing the association's "Chornobyl - Five Years After" conference at the University of Chicago in 1991. He also developed the game "Mishanka," a Ukrainian version of Scrabble.

An avid volleyball player and coach in his youth, Mr. Koltuniuk also loved literature, history, art and crossword puzzles.

Mr. Koltuniuk is survived by his wife, Anna Mostovych, and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. He will be missed by family, friends and colleagues in the United States and Ukraine.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 8, 2004, No. 6, Vol. LXXII

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