Dmytro Shtohryn may have retired as a professor at Illinois in 1995, but his commitment to the university and the field of Ukrainian studies remained as vibrant and meaningful as the Ukrainian paintings hanging on the walls of his home.
Prof. Shtohryn (who recently passed away) and his wife, Eustachia, lived in Champaign since 1960, when he turned down a professional librarianship position at Harvard to join Laurence Miller, professor of library administration and the first head of the Slavic and East European Library, and the late Ralph Fisher, professor of history and the first director of the Russian and East European Center (later renamed the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC), in their quest to teach and expand the Slavic and East European collections at Illinois. The native of Ukraine is credited with establishing Ukrainian studies as a discipline at Illinois.