OBITUARIES (08/17/97)

OBITUARIES

Ireney Kowal, popular leader of Tempo Orchestra, 55

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Ireney Kowal, founder and leader of the ever popular Tempo Orchestra, died suddenly on August 9 while on a trip to Ukraine, where he was leader for a tour group from the U.S. He was 55.

Born on June 15, 1942, Mr. Kowal began his music career with the Ukrainian Music Institute. When he was a high school student, he and several fellow members of the Plast unit in Elizabeth, N.J., formed a band. That band debuted in 1959 at a ball sponsored by the Elizabeth, N.J., branch of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America.

Since then the orchestra, which came to be called Tempo, has played at countless Ukrainian dances, balls and other social gatherings, as well as scores of weddings. The band earned a special place within the Ukrainian community; it became a veritable institution that was booked from year to year to perform at annual community functions. Its leader and members were more than entertainers - they were dear friends to their clients. Forty musicians were affiliated with the orchestra, and the band enjoyed great popularity, playing at more than 1,500 events through the years.

Most recently Tempo was composed of five musicians, but only two of its members - Mr. Kowal and his colleague George Hrab - were with the band since its founding. The band's last performance under Mr. Kowal's direction was at Soyuzivka, the Ukrainian National Association resort, during the July 4 weekend. Tempo was to have played at the resort during Labor Day weekend.

Mr. Kowal graduated from Rutgers University and then completed a master's in social work at the same university. He was employed as administrator of the medically needy program of the Union County Board of Social Services.

Mr. Kowal had been a tour leader since 1992. On this latest trip to Ukraine he was in charge of the "Hutsulka" tour for Scope Travel Inc., on an itinerary he set up that took travelers from Uzhhorod to Rakhiv, Khust and Yaremche in the scenic Carpathian Mountains.

He died on a tour bus en route from Kosiv to Lviv, according to Marijka Helbig, president of Scope Travel. The Kosiv bazaar, which features beautiful Hutsul handicrafts, was his favorite marketplace in Ukraine, located in his favorite area of Ukraine, she added.

Mr. Kowal's death has shaken Ukrainian Americans who knew him not only as a band leader, but also as an active member of the community. He was a former member of the Burlaky Plast fraternity and was one of the original members of the Karavana Quartet. He was master of ceremonies at a number of Ukrainian Festivals held at the Garden State Arts Center (now known as the PNC Arts Center) in Holmdel, N.J.

Surviving are Mr. Kowal's wife, Aneta; and two children, Andrij and Tania.

Arrangements for funeral services in the United States were still being made at press time.

The Very Rev. Dr. Simon Hayuk, pastor and Church scholar, 87

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Very Rev. Dr. Simon Hayuk, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest in the service of God for over 62 years, passed away on April 4 at the age of 87. A long-time contributor of articles to Svoboda and many other Ukrainian newspapers, the Rev. Hayuk was born on April 27, 1909, in Lutsk, Ukraine.

Though offered a chance to pursue the study of tropical medicine in Brussels, he chose to follow in the footsteps of his father, the Rev. Yakim Hayuk, to serve God and his people.

In 1923 he graduated with distinction from the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kremianets, Ukraine, and in 1933 he graduated with honors from the College of Theology at Warsaw University in Poland, where he was awarded a master's degree in theological studies.

In 1933 he married Alexandra Zyglewycz, a school teacher. Suffering persecution at the hands of Communist and Nazi authorities during World War II, the Rev. Hayuk fled to the West.

From 1945 to 1950 he served as parish priest in the Schweinfurt and Aschaffenburg refugee camps, where he was also an active organizer of Ukrainian gymnasiums teaching world history and religious studies.

From 1950 until his retirement in 1986 the Rev. Hayuk served in various Ukrainian Orthodox parishes in Syracuse, Utica, New York City, Buffalo and Hempstead, N.Y., and in Newark, N.J.

In 1968 he was awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. He also served as a professor and later as dean at the Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary in South Bound Brook, N.J.

The Rev. Hayuk was the author of more than half a dozen published monographs about Ukrainian Church history, numerous articles in the Ukrainian press, and many sermons, which were broadcast through the years over the Voice of America to Soviet-occupied Ukraine.

He was a member of Ukrainian National Association Branch 204.

Surviving are his wife, Alexandra, residing in Buffalo; his daughter, Kira, and her husband, Zenon Iwasykiw, in Ocala, Fla.; his daughter, Myroslawa, and her husband, Wolodymyr Dmytrijuk, in Amherst, N.Y.; his son, Col. (Ret.) Hlib Hayuk, and his wife, Teresa Kaltenbacher, in Baltimore; as well as seven grandchildren: Dr. Zina Hajduczok and her husband, Dr. George Hajduczok in Buffalo, N.Y.; Natalie Warren and her husband, Robert Warren, in Orlando, Fla.; Dr. Ksenia Rud in Saddle River, N.J.; Lt. Col. Marianna Carter and her husband, Lt. Col. Daniel Carter, in Woodbridge, Va.; Dr. Andrew Dmytrijuk and his wife, Dr. Natalie Derzko, in Washington; Yakim Hayuk in Amsterdam; and Maya Hayuk in San Francisco; five great-grandchildren, as well as other relatives and friends in the United States, Germany and Ukraine.

Funeral services, including panakhyda rites, were held at the Sliwinski Funeral Home in Cheektowaga, N.Y., on April 5-6. Burial was at St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J., on April 8. The burial rites were officiated by Archbishop Antony and many priests. The family requested that memorial donations be sent to the Children of Chornobyl Fund at the Consistory of St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Center, P.O. Box 495, South Bound Brook, NJ 08880.

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