NOTES ON PEOPLE (07/13/97)

NOTES ON PEOPLE

Student honored by bar association

CLEVELAND - Vsevolod Horodyskyj an eighth grade student at St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral School in Parma, Ohio, was honored recently at the Cleveland Bar Association's Award Luncheon at The Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.

Mr. Horodyskyj and Christina Stachur, another eight grade student at St. Josaphat's who was honored, along with principal Sister Miriam Claire and art teacher Judith Mincek, heard the 1997 Law Day Address given by attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli. Mr. Petrocelli recently obtained a jury verdict and judgment for the plaintiffs in the wrongful death action against O.J. Simpson.

Karen L. Jackson, chair of the Student Art Contest, presented awards that were co-sponsored by The Cleveland Bar Association, The Cleveland Bar Foundation, The Plain Dealer and The Cleveland Indians for students in grades 6-12.

Mr. Horodyskyj won first place for his drawing "Freedom of Expression." For his efforts, he was presented with a $100 bond, a $50 gift certificate from a Cleveland art store, a plaque and four tickets to an Indians home game.

St. Josaphat School received a plaque to be displayed in the trophy case denoting the achievement of both Mr. Horodyskyj and Miss Stachur.

Mr. Horodyskj also was recognized by The Cleveland Regional Council of Science Teachers for his excellent science project in physics and was presented with the Sanford Eisler Memorial Award for Physical Science, which is given in memory of Sanford Eisler, a lifelong science teacher and supervisor from the Cleveland area.

Mr. Horodyskyj will display and explain his project at the CRCST Conference for science teachers on October 18, at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History along with two other major winners from the area.

Mr. Horodyskyj is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Horodyskyj of North Royalton, Ohio. He is a member of UNA Branch 472.

Graduates from Naval Academy

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Ian Alexander Rainey, son of Roma (Babiuk) and Hugh Rainey, graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis on Friday, May 23.

Mr. Rainey belonged to Plast in New York and attended Plast camps at East Chatham, N.Y., from early childhood through his teenage years. He says Plast gave him an advantage at Annapolis, where the academic and physical training was rigorous.

Ensign Rainey has been assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

His grandfather, Roman Babiuk, was a member of the UNA and a well-known Ukrainian community activist.

Receives award for music activity

DETROIT - The Ukrainian community of the Detroit area had an opportunity to see one of its members, Iryna Shamray, receive the 1997 award for outstanding contributions in music on April 20. The presentation was made by the Warren Cultural Commission at a concert of the Warren Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Shamraj is the music director at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic School in Warren, Mich., teaches private piano lessons and is a member of the Ukrainian Music Institute of America. Her select choir and private piano students often perform at community functions and events.

She has been music director and accompanist for musical productions of "West Side Story," "Oklahoma," and "My Fair Lady" in California and Detroit area schools, and participates in every aspect of production, including set design and choreography.

She also is involved in other aspects of Ukrainian cultural life and recently appeared on TV 2 news in an exclusive interview about the Ukrainian art of making pysanky. Among Ms. Shamraj's varied contributions are her dynamic Christmas and spring concerts, which are met with great anticipation every year.

She is a member of UNA Branch 174.

Named to council of credit unions

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. George V. Voinovich of Ohio appointed Marta Liscynesky, a Republican from Parma, Ohio, to the Credit Union Council for a term ending on June 30, 2001.

The Credit Union Council advises and makes recommendations to the Superintendent of Financial Institutions or the Deputy of Credit Unions on matters relating to credit unions. Members are compensated for expenses only.

Gov. Voinovich continues to work closely with the leadership of Ohio's various nationality communities in an effort to increase representation from those communities.

"We are very proud of the fact that Ms. Liscynesky has agreed to serve on the Credit Union Council," stated August B. Pust, special assistant to the governor for multicultural affairs and international relation. "Ms. Liscynesky brings valuable experience to her new position on the council. Ms. Liscynesky is well known not only in our Ukrainian community but also around many northeastern Ohio nationality communities. She is a great role model for our young generation as a professional who makes a difference in Ohio."

Ms. Liscynesky is a prosecutor with the City of Parma Prosecuting Attorney's Office. She is a member of UNA Branch 240.

Appointed librarian in West Hurley, N.Y.

WEST HURLEY, N.Y. - Halyna Barannik of Ulster, N.Y., was appointed director of the West Hurley Library in February.

Born in Germany, Ms. Barannik came to the United States after World War II and grew up in Wellesley, Mass. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in Russian literature. She received a master's degree in Slavic languages from Brown University, and in 1986 received a master's of library science from the State University of New York at Albany.

Ms. Barannik has worked at the Library of Congress, the Harvard University medical library, the Marist College catalogue library, as a translator and freelance writer, and, most recently, as director of the medical library at Keller Army Hospital in West Point, N.Y.

As the new director of the West Hurley Library, Ms. Barannik plans to bar code the library' s entire collection. She is also organizing a collection of photographs of the building of the Ashokan Reservoir, which she and Hurley town co-historian Dave Baker want to see preserved.

Ms. Barannik is a member of UNA Branch 88.

Marks 20 years of work for NASA

HOUSTON - In November of 1994 McDonnell Douglas won a contract with Motorola to design and build the Orbital Services component of the ground control center for the Iridium satellite system. Motorola was impressed with the many years of NASA experience the McDonnell Douglas team could bring to the Iridium project. The Iridium satellite system is a constellation of 66 satellites in 11 different orbital planes destined to provide worldwide cellular telephone service.

Dr. Lubomyr V. Zyla was part of a McDonnell Douglas team responsible for navigation, vehicle ephemeris and event generation, ground back-up, ascent and station keeping guidance, and vehicle state vector maintenance. Dr. Zyla was the chief technical engineer responsible for design of the ground-based tracking navigation system, vehicle drag state estimator, vehicle maneuver efficiency factor estimator and onboard clock maintenance.

Other members of the McDonnell Douglas team were responsible for software architecture, real-time software development issues, guidance and maneuver planning and system testing and verification. A large technical and software development project of this magnitude (over 300,000 lines of software code) is very much a team effort with all members of the team performing a vital function.

The first launch of the Iridium satellite system occurred on May 5. The launch was a success and the Orbital Services component of the Iridium ground control center has performed well. There have been some technical problems to solve in the initial vehicle acquisition, ascent and station keeping phase, but this is to be expected in the early flights for a system of this complexity.

Dr. Zyla has had 20 years of experience at NASA and with commercial contractors designing navigation systems for spacecraft and ground support facilities. He first began work at NASA Johnson Space Center in 1977 when he was involved in developing changes to the Mission Control Center in Houston to support Space Shuttle Operations.

He later went on to make significant contributions as part of the NASA McDonnell Douglas, Draper Laboratories team responsible for the design of the shuttle on orbit and rendezvous navigation system. That system is still flying today and successfully bringing the shuttle to a rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir.

Dr. Zyla is a member of UNA Branch 25.

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