George Kuzmycz eulogized as dedicated American public servant (12/21/97)

George Kuzmycz eulogized as dedicated American public servant

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - George Kuzmycz, the Department of Energy nuclear engineer killed in an automobile accident in Ukraine, was honored here on December 12 at a memorial service attended by more than 400 family, friends and colleagues, including senior U.S. government officials.

Expressing the government's condolences to the Kuzmycz family on behalf of President Bill Clinton, U.S. Secretary of Energy Federico Peña called Mr. Kuzmycz "a great American" and "peacemaker."

"He served to make our world a safer and a more peaceful place," Mr. Peña said. "His cause - to ensure that nuclear materials in Ukraine were secure and protected against theft - is the cause of peacemakers. And George truly was a peacemaker."

Also attending the panakhyda (requiem service) for Mr. Kuzmycz and addressing the mourners was Ambassador William Courtney, special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasian affairs at the National Security Council. He read a letter to Mr. Kuzmycz's wife, Ksenia, from Vice-President Al Gore, who praised Mr. Kuzmycz's "unprecedented" accomplishments at the Kyiv Institute of Nuclear Research, the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, the Sevastopol Institute of Nuclear Energy and Industry and the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant.

"America has lost a dedicated public servant who was highly regarded in the international arms control and non-proliferation communities," Vice-President Gore wrote. "George's contribution remains a living tribute to future generations."

Ambassador Courtney, who had known Mr. Kuzmycz for a number of years, cited Mr. Kuzmycz's dedication in going to Ukraine as soon as it became an independent country as well as, on a more personal level, his sense of humor and adventurous spirit.

Mrs. Kuzmycz also received a letter from U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Green Miller and his wife, Suzanne.

"Only a brief month earlier," the ambassador wrote, "George and I together took pride in opening a center in Kyiv designed to make Ukraine, and the world, safer from the potential danger of improper use and movement of nuclear materials. His work in this regard was and is valued highly by our government and the government and people of Ukraine."

Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Yuri Shcherbak, sent a letter to the Kuzmycz family in which he also noted the shock and grief with which Mr. Kuzmycz's death was met by his colleagues in Ukraine, and at the request of the directors and staff of the Institute of Nuclear Research, where Mr. Kuzmycz had numerous professional colleagues and was greatly admired and respected, passed along condolences to Mr. Kuzmycz's family.

Mr. Kuzmycz, 53, died on December 6 in a head-on automobile accident while being driven from the South Ukraine Power Plant to Mykolaiv. His driver also died in the accident, as did the driver of the other car, who, according to the local police report, apparently fell asleep at the wheel and crossed into the oncoming lane. The other driver's wife and two children were injured in the crash.

Mr. Kuzmycz came to Ukraine a few weeks earlier on one of many trips in recent years as the program manager of the Ukraine Program on Nuclear Material Security Task Force in the Office of Arms Control and Non-Proliferation at the Department of Energy. The program seeks to help Ukraine upgrade its nuclear energy facilities by improving its nuclear storage safety and accounting procedures.

"George gave his life while in a country he loved dearly," Mr. Peña said. "He was truly a pillar of the Ukrainian community and a proud credit to his heritage. George was dedicated to his primary missions of securing nuclear materials in Ukraine because he was dedicated to his people and he really made a big difference to his community."

Mr. Peña also noted the human side of Mr. Kuzmycz: "One phrase that I keep hearing over and over again from the many wonderful stories about George was that he was larger than life, that he had a passion and a zest for living." He also was a giving person, as Mr. Peña recalled an instance when Mr. Kuzmycz, on one of his missions in Ukraine, learned about a family that had lost the roof of their home during a storm. "George spent his weekend, along with other Department employees, working to repair the roof," he said.

The Department of Energy honored Mr. Kuzmycz with its Distinguished Career Service Award, which Secretary Peña presented to Mrs. Kuzmycz, along with the departmental flag and numerous letters from his colleagues.

Born in Ukraine in 1944, George Kuzmycz grew up in New York in the traditional post-war Ukrainian American environment of church, school and community organizations. (Last week The Weekly had reported that he was born in Czecho-Slovakia; in fact, he was baptized there.) He received his B.S. degree in nuclear engineering from Queens College and an M.S. degree in nuclear engineering from the University of New York at Buffalo, where he also completed doctoral studies.

He came to the Washington area in 1975 to work for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Before joining the Department of Energy, he also worked on export controls at the Department of Commerce.

Since childhood, Mr. Kuzmycz has been a member of Plast, the Ukrainian scouting organization, and had been a member of the Chornomortsi senior scout fraternity. He was on the board of directors of the Washington-area Ukrainian Saturday School and sang in the Ukrainian National Choir, at one time serving as its president.

George Kuzmycz is survived by his wife, Ksenia; two sons, Yuri, 22, and Danylo, 20; his mother, Valentina Kuzmycz, of New York; and sister, Yara Sydorak.

The memorial service on December 12 was held without the casket due to a flight-connection foul-up in Amsterdam. The funeral service was held on Sunday, December 14, at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Silver Spring, Md. The burial took place that afternoon at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J.

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