Oleksander Kobasa, major donor to library

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Oleksander Kobasa of Williams-town, N.J., recently donated $50,000 to help the Stefanyk Library. Born in Matsyna Velyka, in the western part of the Lemko region, he went to school in Horlytsia and took correspondence courses at the Ukrainian Technical and Husbandry Institute in Podebrady in the present-day Czech Republic.

During World War II he was forcibly deported to Germany as a laborer by the Nazis. After the war, while in a displaced persons' camp, he headed the Ukrainian section in a German bookstore and was instrumental in the publication of several books.

He and his wife, Olha, emigrated to the U.S., settling in Chester, Pa., where Mr. Kobasa found work and became an active member of the Ukrainian community. A resident of Williamstown, since 1963, Mr. Kobasa has been active in the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine and has continued to work for his favorite cause: promoting the history and cultural heritage of the Lemko region and the Lemko people.

In 1955 he founded the Karpaty Foundation in Presov (Priashiv), Slovakia, and set up Oko Publishers, with the aim of fostering "research and furthering the development of Rusyn-Ukrainian culture of the Carpathian region by providing financial support for publications in the sphere of Carpathian studies."

Mr. Kobasa took part in the World Congress of Lemkos held in Lviv in 1994.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 30, 1997, No. 13, Vol. LXV

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