February 5, 2016

2015: Our community mourns their passing

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During 2014 our community mourned the passing of many of its prominent members: musicians, scholars, artists, community activists, human rights activists, journalists and others. Among them were the following, listed in the order of their passing.

Andriy Kuzmenko (“Kuzma”), 47, hugely popular singer in Ukraine who was also politically active and had most recently played a benefit concert to raise funds for the Ukrainian military, lead singer of the group Skryabin, killed in a car crash – February 2.

John S. Reshetar, 90, professor emeritus of political science a the University of Washington in Seattle since 1989, after four decades as a faculty member at that university and others; author of the landmark book “The Ukrainian Revolution, 1917-1920” and other works – February 7.

Bohdan Tytla, 87, well-known and highly respected artist – February 17.

Valentina Kuzmych, 96, longtime president, and later honorary president, of the United Ukrainian Orthodox Sisterhoods, administration of the magazine Vira, co-founder of the Holy Trinity Parish in New York – February 27.

Olga Fylypowycz, 97, secret member of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization when it was outlawed by the Polish government; participated in the 1938 march to restore the graves of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen on Makivka; in 1941, together with her late sister Osypa, sheltered a Jewish co-worker, Ruzia Lekhman, saving her from the Holocaust – February 28.

Nicolas (Mykola) Andreadis, 86, owner of construction and real estate development companies, member of the board of directors of the Ukrainian Opera Company – March 12.

Ihor Bohdan Chyzowych, 81, athlete, longtime president of the Ukrainian American Sports Center Tryzub, president/CEO of the Ukrainian Self Reliance Federal Credit Union, U.S. Army veteran – March 15.

Pavlo Dorozynsky, 88, Plast activist, head of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization in the U.S. in 1971-1975 – March 18.

Oleg Bryjak, 54, bass-baritone opera singer of Ukrainian descent who was born in Kazakhstan, member of the German Opera on the Rhine in Dusselfdorf, protodeacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Krefeld; he was among the 144 passengers and six crew members who died when Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf was deliberately crashed in the south of France by a co-pilot – March 24.

Yurij Petlura, 28, gifted bandurist and pianist, teacher of music and physics, assistant conductor of the Canadian Bandurist Capella and the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of the U.S.A., music instructor at bandura camps in North America – April 21.

Stephen Peter Smotrycz Jr., 89, longtime activist and member of the board of directors of the Ukrainian National Home and Community Center of Jersey City, N.J., U.S. Army veteran of World War II, photographer and co-owner of Hudson Camera – April 24.

Leonid Plyushch, 76, of France, mathematician/cyberneticist, active member of the Soviet and Ukrainian human rights movements and a victim of punitive psychiatry (1973-1976), Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR, author of “History’s Carnival: A Dissident’s Autobiography” (1979), member of the External Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group – June 4.

Roman A. Sawycky, 77, musicologist, author, pianist, teacher, music researcher and longtime music columnist (“Sounds and Views”) of The Ukrainian Weekly – June 20.

Laryssa Kukrycka Lysniak (Laryssa Lauret), 75, actress of Ukrainian and American stage, film and television – July 5.

Jaroslawa Prodywus, 85, a founder and stalwart supporter of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Byzantine-Catholic Parish in Omaha, Nebraska, initiator of the Ukrainian dance group in that city – July 24.

Robert Conquest, 98, Sovietologist, renowned author of 21 books on Soviet history and politics, who, according to The Times of London, “did perhaps more than any other historian in the West to bring those unimaginable crimes [of Stalin] to public attention”; author of “The Great Terror” (1968) and “The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine” (1986); historian whose meticulous and expressive account of the Great Famine of 1932-1933 told the world the truth about Stalin’s premeditated murder of millions of their kinsmen and gave voice to those millions – August 3.

George Truchly, M.D., 93, former president of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and member of the Journal of UMANA editorial board, September 9.

Paul Dzul, M.D., 94, former president of the World Federation of Ukrainian Medical Associations, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America, November 2.

Lev Dobrjansky, Ph.D., 90, past president of the national board of the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of America – November 26.

Maria Polanskyj, 76, activist of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, member of the UNWLA National Board since 2002, longtime chair of the UNWLA Scholarship Program – December 4.

Rostyslav (Ross) L. Chomiak, 79, editor of The Ukrainian Weekly (1960-1961), associate editor of Prolog Research and Publishing Association, journalist with Voice of America and U.S. Information Agency, writer of commentaries for Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly – December 7.Untitled-2

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