OBITUARIES (06/30/96)

OBITUARIES

Leo G. Wynnyckyj, 65, activist in Students' Union and Plast

OTTAWA - Leo G. Wynnyckyj, 65, former president of the Ukrainian Canadian Students' Union (SUSK) and Plast activist, died in a local hospital on May 31, after a battle with a rare neurological illness.

Born on February 21, 1931, in Yabloniv, Chortkiv district, in Galicia, Mr. Wynnyckyj fled westward with his family before the Red Army advance in 1944, then emigrated to Canada in 1948.

Having settled in Montreal, Mr. Wynnyckyj attended Concordia University and obtained a bachelor of commerce in 1953, a B.A. from Sir George Williams College in 1955, then an M.B.A. from the University of Western Ontario (London) in 1957, and rose to the rank of major in the Canadian Armed Forces reserves.

In December 1953, he took part in the first Ukrainian Canadian students' congress in Winnipeg, as a delegate of the Zarevo student association. Mr. Wynnyckyj served on the congress's organizing committee, and after SUSK was founded at that gathering, held positions on its first two national executives. He was elected to two terms as SUSK president in 1958-1960.

Mr. Wynnyckyj was also active in the Plast Ukrainian Youth Association, serving as the Montreal "koshovyi" in 1953-1955 and "stanychnyi" in 1962-1964. He served on Plast's Canadian national executive council in 1965-1967, and was a member of the "Lisovi Chorty" scouting fraternity.

From the mid-1960s, Mr. Wynnyckyj devoted himself principally to his professional vocation as a management consultant. He worked extensively in North America and the Third World, often through firms in which he was a founding partner, and on behalf of institutions such as the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank.

Mr. Wynnyckyj served as the president of the Canadian Society of Management Consultants in 1973-1974, and obtained a doctorate in financing from Pacific Western University in 1985.

Funeral services were conducted at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Toronto on June 4. Interment followed at the York Cemetery.

Mr. Wynnyckyj is survived by his wife, Marta; children, Andrij, Julian, Tetiana, Levco, Marko and Khrystyna; his brother, Ivan; and his mother, Jaroslawa.

Michael Herman, 85, teacher and authority on folk dance

by Helen Smindak

NEW YORK - Michael Herman, a teacher and an authority on folk dance, died on May 10 in North Shore Hospital in Glen Cove, N.Y. He was 85 and lived in Babylon, N.Y.

Born in Cleveland to Ukrainian parents, Mr. Herman began performing folk dance as a member of the Ukrainian Folk Dance Group founded in Cleveland by Ukrainian dance impresario Vasiliy Avramenko. He came to New York in 1930 to study violin and became a member and teaching assistant of Avramenko's New York dance group, where he met his wife, Mary Ann, nee Bodnar.

The two were instrumental in helping to make folk dance popular in America and encouraging others to believe with them that there should be no national factions in folk dancing. The credo became the title of Mr. Herman's popular 1947 book on the subject, "Folk Dances for All."

During the 1930s, Mr. Herman taught folk dancing at International House and at the New School for Social Research, while Mrs. Herman headed the administrative office at Svoboda. Together, they conducted a Ukrainian-language radio program under the sponsorship of the Surma Book and Music Co.

Expert in many national dance forms, the couple attracted thousands of advocates to folk dancing during their informal folk dance sessions at the 1939-1940 World's Fair. In October 1940, they opened the Community Folk Dance Center (later Michael Herman's Folk Dance House) at the Ukrainian National Home on East Sixth Street.

As folk dancing took hold, the center was moved to larger quarters at the Polish National Home (also called Arlington Hall) on St. Mark's Place, drawing such celebrities as the world-famous photographer Gjon Milis, folk singer Burl Ives, dancer Gene Kelly, columnist Walter Winchell, and actors John Garfield, Carole Lombard and Peter Lorre.

The center was housed for a time at the High School of Fashion Industries on West 24th Street. In 1950, the Hermans established Folk Dance House, a Manhattan school and center for folk dancing in the old Humphrey-Weidman Dance Theater, which they directed until 1970.

Folk Dance House, at 108 W. 16th St., became a hub for America's folk-dance world, offering folk dance classes, square dancing and contra dancing, as well as workshops, teacher training courses, music, films, costume displays, crafts, foods and a newsletter.

Among famous dance troupes that visited the center were the Bulgarian Koutev Ensemble, the Robert Iglesias Spanish Troupe, the Beryozka Ensemble and Igor Moiseyev's dancers, who asked Mr. Herman to teach them the Virginia Reel. The dance was performed as an encore surprise during the group's first U.S. tour.

The Hermans edited The Folk Dancer, a magazine, and taught at schools and colleges throughout the nation. They conducted folk festivals in New York City's parks and at Rockefeller Plaza, and were sent by the U.S. State Department to Japan after World War II to teach folk dancing in 21 cities. Their costume collection was shown at the New York Library for the Performing Arts in 1980.

Recognizing the scarcity of folk music records, Mr. Herman founded the Folk Dancer Record Co. in the 1940s, and used the Michael Herman Folk Dance Orchestra (he was the first violinist) to record international dance melodies. The orchestra also made 15 records for RCA Victor.

For 44 years, the Hermans ran the Maine Folk Dance Camp, one of the top dance camps in the country. The camp offered classes conducted by specialists, with a different nationality spotlighted each day, a costume reference library and a scholarship program.

Mr. Herman is the author of an article on folk dancing in the World Book Encyclopedia, a popular reference source in American schools.

From 1970 until Mrs. Herman's death in 1992, the couple taught folk dancing every Sunday night at the Bayshore-Brightwaters Public Library in Brightwaters, N.Y. Mr. Herman continued to attend sessions of the Sunday Nite Folk Dance Group until he suffered a heart attack in April.

Mr. Herman's vitality and dedication to folk dance were recalled by members of the group during a June 2 memorial program at the parish hall of Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church in West Islip, N.Y. Besides spoken testimonials, the reading of letters and a moment of silence, the program included what was dearest to Mr. Herman - folk dancing.

Mr. Herman is survived by two sisters, Helen Busser of Maple Heights, Ohio, and Julia Jurat of Parma, Ohio.

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