Zenon Snylyk, former editor of The Weekly, Svoboda, passes away at age 69 (01/27/02)

Zenon Snylyk, former editor of The Weekly, Svoboda, passes away at age 69

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Zenon Snylyk, former editor-in-chief of the Svoboda Ukrainian-language daily newspaper, and prior to that editor of The Ukrainian Weekly, died on January 21. He was 69.

Mr. Snylyk devoted 36 years and four months of his life to work as an editor with publications of the Ukrainian National Association. He split that time equally between the UNA's two papers, and also was a member of the editorial staff of the two-volume Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia sponsored by the UNA and published by the University of Toronto Press.

Mr. Snylyk always underlined that the role of UNA publications was to serve the Ukrainian community and the Ukrainian nation, and that these were his "imperatives" as an editor.

He was renowned also as an athlete. He was a three-time member of the U.S. Olympic Soccer Team (1956, 1960, 1964), and captained the 1956 and 1960 Olympic squads. He also played and/or led U.S. soccer teams that competed in the Pan-American Games and in a World Cup tournament, and was twice named an All-American. In addition, he coached and played for seven Ukrainian soccer teams during the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr. Snylyk was born on November 14, 1933, in Putiatyntsi, Rohatyn county, western Ukraine; he was the son of Mykhailo and Evstakhia (Klodzinska) Snylyk. He emigrated to the United States following World War II, and graduated as valedictorian of his class at Benjamin Franklin High School in Rochester, N.Y., where the Snylyk family had settled.

He became a U.S. citizen in 1955 and that same year graduated with a B.A. from the University of Rochester. Three years later he earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago and then taught political science in 1959-1960 at McGill University in Montreal. He married Yaroslava Matura in 1959.

In 1962 Mr. Snylyk was hired by the Jersey City, N.J.-based Ukrainian National Association as editor of The Ukrainian Weekly, then an English-language supplement to Svoboda. In 1976, under his editorship, The Weekly was transformed from a broadsheet supplement of its sister publication, to a separate tabloid-format newspaper.

He remained at the helm of The Weekly until 1980, when he was tapped to be the new editor-in-chief of Svoboda, then a daily newspaper. He was the editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian daily at the time it marked its centennial in 1993 and served in that post until mid-June 1998, choosing to retire before Svoboda was transformed, in accordance with a decision of the UNA Convention of that year, to a weekly newspaper.

On June 18, 1998, his last day of work at the UNA Home Office, which by then had moved from Jersey City to Parsippany, N.J., Mr. Snylyk was feted at an informal gathering of the two UNA newspapers' editorial and production staffs, print shop and administration.

In a farewell column published in the June 20, 1998, issue of Svoboda, he addressed his readers and co-workers: "I am obligated to express my thanks to all of you for your support and loyalty during my 36 years and four months at the Svoboda Publishing House."

"I extend my sincere thanks for your loyalty, dedication and cooperation, for your suggestions, advice, support and readiness to work together in the defense and popularization of Ukrainianism," he concluded.

Mr. Snylyk was a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Ukrainian Journalists' Association and various other community organizations.

He was also an avid tennis player who won many championships, and was an organizer of tennis tournaments for players of all ages and tennis camps for youths at Soyuzivka, the upstate New York resort of the Ukrainian National Association. Less known, but much appreciated by his colleagues at the UNA, was his skill in table tennis (a favorite lunchtime activity at the Home Office in Jersey City).

In recognition of Mr. Snylyk's three most beloved pursuits, on the occasion of his retirement the staff of The Ukrainian Weekly prepared a special front page of the paper highlighting his days on the soccer field, at the editor's desk and on the tennis court.

Mr. Snylyk passed away in the early morning hours of January 21 at his home in Berkeley Heights, N.J.

Surviving are his wife, Yaroslava, and daughter, Christina, as well as relatives in North America and Ukraine. The family has requested that memorial donations be made to the Building Fund of The Ukrainian Museum.

The funeral liturgy was offered on January 24 at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Newark, N.J.; burial was at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J.

On January 23, following a parastas service at the Union Funeral Home, eulogies were delivered by Dr. Orest Popovych, speaking on behalf of the sports community, and especially the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada, and the Chornomorska Sitch Ukrainian Athletic-Educational Association; Irene Jarosewich, editor-in-chief of Svoboda; Roma Hadzewycz, editor-in-chief of The Ukrainian Weekly; and Maria Shust, director of The Ukrainian Museum, which counted Mr. Snylyk among its most ardent supporters.

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