OBITUARY: Anne Herman, former VP of UNA (03/16/97)

OBITUARY: Anne Herman, former VP of UNA

BEREA, Ohio - Anne Herman's mission was inspired by a place she never saw.

The New York City native devoted her life to Ukrainian activities. She spent eight years as supreme vice-presidentess of the Ukrainian National Association. But she was too frail to visit Ukraine when it became independent.

Mrs. Herman died on March 8 at the Aristocrat Berea Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center from the effects of several strokes. She was 90.

Although she never visited Ukraine, she was proud that a grandson, Taras Szmagala Jr. of Cleveland, spent a year and a half there as a lawyer for Squire, Sanders & Dempsey.

Mrs. Herman, nee Yurchak, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1906, to Ukrainian immigrant parents who came to the United States in 1901. She was a secretary in Manhattan until her marriage to Gregory Herman in 1927. He served in World War I and was a graduate of Lafayette College and Columbia University.

The couple lived for 25 years in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he was a high school German teacher. During those years, they were partners in promoting the fraternal activities of the Ukrainian National Association. They founded and coordinated youth groups and athletic activities throughout eastern Pennsylvania.

Eventually their activities became national when in 1950 Mr. Herman was elected supreme secretary of the association. He died in 1957.

Mrs. Herman was elected supreme vice-presidentess of the Ukrainian National Association and held this position for two terms, 1958-1962 and 1962-1966.

Mrs. Herman was an avid reader and in her elderly years she pursued this hobby in her Jersey City apartment which over-looked the Statue of Liberty and what she called "my Brooklyn." In 1993 she came to the Cleveland area to be with a daughter, Katherine Szmagala, and recuperated from a major stroke. She had two other children, Anne-Marie Glut, who died in 1985, and Gregory Jr., who died in 1986.

In addition to her daughter Katherine (with her husband Taras), Mrs. Herman is survived by five grandchildren, Stefan Glut, Gregory Raymond Herman, Taras Szmagala Jr., Lara Scott and Andrew Herman; two great-grandchildren; and one sister, Elaine Ropke, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

A nephew, the Rev. Dr. John Ropke, pastor of St. Vladimir's Church in Kensington, Pa., offered the funeral liturgy on March 11 at St. Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Parma. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery on Long Island, N.Y.

Funeral arrangements were handled by the Kolodiy Lazuta Funeral Home in Parma, Ohio.

Memorial donations may be made to: Hospice of the Western Reserve, 300 E. 185th St., Cleveland, OH 44119.

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