OBITUARY: Prof. Myroslaw Semchyshyn, pedagogue and scholar in Ukraine and the diaspora (04/04/99)

OBITUARY

Prof. Myroslaw Semchyshyn, pedagogue and scholar in Ukraine and the diaspora

by Dr. Pavlo Pundy

CHICAGO - Prof. Myroslaw Semchyshyn, a pedagogue and scholar, died on February 5, in Chicago.

He was born on September 26, 1910, in the town of Zolochiv, Halychyna, into the family of scholars and civic activists Luke and Stefania (nee Vintoniak) Semchyshyn.

After having completed his high school (gymnasium) education in Zolochiv, he studied Slavic studies at the university of Lviv, receiving a master of philosophy degree. After completing two more years of philosophy practicum and matriculating in the required disciplines, he received the diplomas of instructor on the gymnasium and college levels.

In the years 1936-1938 he taught the Ukrainian language at the branch of the Ukrainian Academic Gymnasium in Lviv. During those years he was working also on completion of a doctorate in the field of Slavic philology, however, the start of World War II interrupted his studies.

During the first Soviet occupation of Halychyna Prof. Semchyshyn was a lecturer of Ukrainian language at Lviv University. In addition, he was lecturer in Ukrainian language and literature at the Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute in Lviv and, concurrently, was scholarly collaborator in the department of linguistics at the Lviv branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

During the German occupation (1941-1944) Prof. Semchyshyn worked as a school administrator in the Ukrainian Central Committee and also as a journalist.

He emigrated at the beginning of September 1944, first to Vienna, where he was employed in the department of cultural affairs of the Ukrainian Assistance Committee, and, after the end of war, found himself in Salzburg, where he taught Ukrainian and literature in a private gymnasium, as well as in Polish preparatory pre-graduation classes sponsored by the Polish Red Cross.

During the years 1947-1955 he lived in England, where, after one year of teaching in a private school in Telford, he joined the Ukrainian weekly Ukrainska Dumka, the publication of the Association Ukrainians in Great Britain. Subsequently he became office manager and a freelance journalist.

In the years 1954-1955 he was a scholarly collaborator of the Munich-based American Institute for the Study of the USSR and produced a major study of the educational system in Soviet Ukraine.

In 1955 he emigrated to America. In Chicago he became one of the collaborators and the first editor of the independent weekly Ukrainian Life, while working simultaneously for two American companies.

In 1961, after receiving American citizenship, Prof. Semchyshyn began working at the teachers' college in Chicago, later a state college, and since 1971 at Northeastern State University. In the course of 17 years he taught Russian, as well as the Polish and German languages and literatures. He retired in 1978.

In addition to his teaching obligations, in 1963 he initiated advanced-level studies in Chicago named after Petro Mohyla, and was the primary director and lecturer in those subjects. In 1973 he organized the citizens' committee at Illinois State University to introduce Ukrainian topics into the Slavic curricula, encompassing language, literature and cultural studies. He became the first lecturer for those subjects.

During 1967-1972 he was a participant in the Educational Coordinating Council of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, directing programs in schools dealing with Ukrainian studies and pedagogy. Several of his scholarly articles were published in Lviv and, later, in the diaspora.

Beginning in the 1960s he was active at the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Volodymyr, where he was not only a member of the church council, but was primarily responsible for editing the Cathedral Chronicle (later renamed The Messenger) and all press materials.

Prof. Semchyshyn was a full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh), which in 1985 published his 564-page study titled "Thousand Years of Ukrainian Culture." His memoirs of life in Lviv between the years 1920 and 1940 were published in 1998 under the title "From the Book of the Lion."

In 1985-1993 he was editor-publisher of: "Yaroslavschyna i Zasiannia," a historical memoir collection of NTSh; "Unforgotten Years," a memorial edition about the Ukrainian Gymnasium in Salzburg; "Materials Concerning the History of Ukrainian Medicine," Volume 2, published by the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (1988); "Memorial Volume of UMANA on its 40th Anniversary" (1990); and "Ukrainian Cooperatives in the Diaspora" (1993).

For many years he was chairman of the NTSh Center in Chicago and an honorary co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the Ukrainian Diaspora.

Prof. Semchyshyn had an older sister, Luba Shandrovska, who lived and died in Chicago; and two children, Yuri and Myroslav, and several grandchildren and great-grand children in Ukraine, whom he supported.

After arriving in Chicago Prof. Semchyshyn was remarried to Ola Detcyk, who died in 1990. He was afraid of remaining alone and married Christina Buchko to have a good companion during his old age.

Prof. Semchyshyn suddenly became ill on Friday, February 5, and died of a heart attack. His wife and personal friends, especially Marta Farion and Sviatoslav Lychyk, prepared a beautiful funeral ceremony.

On Sunday, February 7, the Rev. Archimandrite Pankraty, superintendent of St. Volodymyr Cathedral, and the Rev. Myron Panchuk of the Ss. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church, offered a parastas and panakhyda. The cathedral choir sang the responses.

After the service, eulogies were read by Dr. Pavlo Pundy, NTSh Study Center in Chicago; Mr. Lychyk, St. Volodymyr Cathedral; and Dmytro Hryhorchuk, Ukrainian National Credit Union Association.

On Monday, February 8, funeral services at the cathedral were offered by the Rev. Pankraty and the Rev. Mitred Ivan Krotec of Ss. Volodymyr and Olha Church. Both priests gave moving eulogies. The body was laid to rest in the Ukrainian Orthodox section of Elmwood Cemetery.

A wake (tryzna) was held in the Ukrainian Cultural Center. Dr. Vasyl Markus summarized the scientific and civic accomplishments of the late professor, and Ms. Farion remembered her friendship with Prof. Semchyshyn. Volodymyra Demus mentioned warmly the Mohyla classes, as well as the great influence they exerted on her own intellectual and literary development. Serhiy Illuk, who as a student in Lviv had known Prof. Semchyshyn, remembered the professor's teaching days.

Mr. Lychyk thanked the assembled for their prayers and participation in the tryzna. The somber occasion was concluded with a prayer and the singing by all present of "Vichnaia Pamiat" (Eternal Memory).

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