OBITUARY: Dr. Alex Cybriwsky, research physicist (09/29/96)

OBITUARY: Dr. Alex Cybriwsky, research physicist

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. - Dr. Alex Cybriwsky, a research physicist and prominent member of the Ukrainian community, died here of a heart attack on September 3. He was 82.

Dr. Cybriwsky was born in the village of Pidsosniv, in western Ukraine on March 26, 1914. He was the second youngest of eight children. He studied in Lviv, receiving a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Lviv in 1940. He continued his education in Austria, receiving a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Vienna in 1945. His dissertation was in nuclear physics.

That same year Dr. Cybriwsky married Myroslava Bachynsky, who had completed a master's degree in pharmacy. They emigrated to the United States in 1949, initially settling in Louisville, Ky. After his first job as a gift wrapper in a department store, Dr. Cybriwsky received his first professional job as a chemist at Archer Chemical Co., where he rose to the position of chief chemist.

He later worked as a research scientist at Reynolds Metals Co.,developing advancements in aluminum technology. He received nine patents during his years at Reynolds Metals. From 1960 to 1962 Dr. Cybriwsky worked for General Electric as a research physicist.

In 1962, Dr. Cybriwsky took a job as a research physicist with Allis-Chalmers in Milwaukee, partly so his family could enjoy the larger Ukrainian community in Milwaukee and be near the even larger Ukrainian population in Chicago. At Allis-Chalmers, he was initially a solid state physicist working on fuel-cell technology and eventually rose to project director for energy conversion and coal gasification projects. He retired in 1985.

Dr. Cybriwsky's most significant achievement at Allis-Chalmers was to develop an innovative and more efficient approach to converting coal to natural gas. Dr. Cybriwsky received an additional patent for this process and a consortium of 20 utilities has committed to commercializing this process.

Dr. Cybriwsky was active in the Ukrainian community of Milwaukee. He served as president of the Ukrainian Credit Union, and was head of the local committee overseeing the celebration of the Millennium of Ukrainian Christianity. He was also past president of the St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church committee, overseeing major church renovations, including the construction of the iconostasis, and was a cantor at the church.

He was a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the International Institute in Milwaukee, and former president of the Milwaukee Physics Club.

Dr. Cybriwsky was named the 1983 Milwaukee Citizen of the Year.

During his retirement, Dr. Cybriwsky returned twice to his homeland. In the spring of 1992, he returned to his native village with his son, Roman, on which occasion he donated generously to the old village church, which under the Soviet regime had been turned into a grain collection depot and was being rebuilt.

Dr. Cybriwsky was member of UNA Branch 417.

Dr. Cybriwsky is survived by his wife, Myroslava of Greenfield, Wisc.; son, Roman of Fort Washington, Pa., with his wife, Olga, and children, Adrian, Alex and Mary; daughter, Anna Skubiak of Glen Ellyn, Ill., with her husband, Ihor, and children, Taya and Marko; daughter, Christina Jermihov of Edina, Minn., with her husband, Nick, and children, Kattie, Paul and Ann; son, Zenon of Marlborough, Mass., with his wife, Olenka, and children, Melanie and Andreya; and brother, Ilko, of Louisville, Ky.,with his wife, Olga, and children, Wolodymyr and Bohdan.

Burial was on Saturday, September 7, at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Chicago.