NOTES ON PEOPLE

New York police officer promoted to lieutenant

NEW YORK - Gregory William Chupa, youngest son of the late William Chupa, former secretary of Ukrainian National Association Branch 325, was promoted to lieutenant of the New York Police Department on May 20.

Lt. Chupa attended St. Vincent's College at St. John's University. He graduated cum laude on May 22, 1988, with a bachelor of science degree in Criminal Justice.

He is a member of the October 1990 graduating class of the New York City Police Academy. He received the 1st Deputy Commissioner Award for his achievement in maintaining the second highest overall average in a class of over 700 graduates.

On May 10, 1995, upon successfully completing mandatory testing, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant.

Lt. Chupa is the youngest of four children. His mother, Dorothy Chupa, resides in Briarwood, N.Y. His sister Joyce Chupa-Reisman is an elementary school teacher; his brother William Chupa Jr. is a New York City firefighter; and sister Barbara Chupa is an insurance broker in New York City and present secretary of UNA Branch 325, of which the entire family are members.

Receives master's in international relations

WASHINGTON - Adrian Pidlusky, son of Bohdan (deceased) and Maria A. Pidlusky of Ellenville, N.Y., has graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington with a master's diploma in international relations.

Born in the Bronx and raised in Maine, Mr. Pidlusky and his family moved to Ellenville in 1986. In 1990 he graduated the Ukrainian Pontifical Minor Seminary in Rome, Italy, and in 1994, from the State University of New York, College at New Paltz, where he majored in international relations. Mr. Pidlusky supported himself while in college by working at Soyuzivka.

After graduation in December 1994, he worked at IntelNews in Kyiv as a translator/correspondent. From August 1995 to July 1997 he worked as a consular assistant at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

Mr. Pidlusky graduated on May 27 from Johns Hopkins University, completed a two-year graduate program in international relations with a concentration in American foreign policy. His master's thesis was "Eagle's Influence: American Policy towards Ukraine's Nuclear Weapons." During his studies he worked in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and last summer at the Energy Intelligence Group, a news agency covering the oil and gas industries.

Mr. Pidlusky was recently hired by Argonnne National Laboratory in Illinois for its Non-Proliferation Graduate Program, which trains Ukrainian, Russian and Kazak personnel in the technical and policy aspects of nuclear non-proliferation.

In September, after three months of training with various U.S. government agencies, he will be based for one year at the Scientific and Technical Center in Kyiv and will work to facilitate various U.S. government-sponsored programs in export control and nuclear non-proliferation in Ukraine.

Mr. Pidlusky is active in the Ukrainian American community of Washington, as membership director of The Washington Group, an association of Ukrainian American professionals, and as a choir member of the Ukrainian National Shrine of the Holy Family. He belongs to Ukrainian National Association Branch 214.

Earns B.S. in pharmacy, cited for leadership

ALBANY, N.Y. - Tanya S. Schram of New Hartford, N.Y., has been awarded a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy at the Albany College of Pharmacy of Union University in Albany, N.Y.

Ms. Schram was inducted into the Phi La Sigma leadership society, which recognizes outstanding leadership and service to the profession of pharmacy. She also was selected to be in "Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges."

Ms. Schram was a four-time recipient of the Ukrainian National Association scholarship. She is the daughter of Neil and Valentina Schram, and is a member of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Organization and UNA Branch 58.

Ms. Schram has accepted a position with the Eckerd Drug Corp.

Graduates with honors from Rutgers law school

by Michael Shulha

CAMDEN, N.J. - Halya (nee Shulha) Oscislawski graduated on May 19 from Rutgers School of Law (Camden) and was granted the degree of juris doctor with honors.

The daughter of Mychajlo and Maria Shulha, she grew up in Readington N.J. After graduating from high school, she went on to study psychology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

During her undergraduate years she volunteered extensively in the community and was named Volunteer of the Year by the Mental Health Clinic of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She excelled in her studies and completed a senior thesis project that earned her the 1993-1994 Most Outstanding Student in Psychology Award. She graduated from Rutgers University, Douglass College, in 1994 with high honors overall, and highest honors in psychology, as well as with several other awards, including induction into the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.

The former Miss Shulha has also been very active in the Ukrainian community. She completed her Ukrainian studies at St. Andrew's Ukrainian School in South Bound Brook, N.J. In addition, she studied dance with Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky for more than 12 years and became a Syzokryli dance ensemble performer at age 16. As a Syzokryli performer, she participated in weekly rehearsals and performances, including the opportunity to travel to Ukraine and perform in some of the country's major cities. She was also a counselor at Mrs. Bohachevsky's summer dance camps, as well as a teacher of Ukrainian dance.

After completing her undergraduate studies, Halya married Dr. Danylo Oscislawski, son of Eugene and Maria Oscislawski of Matawan, N.J. She moved to Michigan with her new husband so that he could complete his residency in emergency medicine. During this time Ms. Oscislawski worked as a director of psychological services at a convalescent center. Thereafter, she decided to return to New Jersey to study law.

Ms. Oscislawski will take the New Jersey bar examination in July. She has already been hired by the law firm of Wolff & Samson located in Roseland, N.J. She plans to eventually specialize in health care law.

Halya and Danylo Oscislawski are members of Ukrainian National Association Branch 234.

Scholar celebrates his 80th birthday

by Peter Kuzyk

LEAMINGTON, Ontario - To say that Prof. Wolodymyr T. Zyla's life of 80 years has been interesting, and at times difficult, is an understatement. He was born in Ukraine and lived in many places throughout Europe and the Americas before settling, along with his wife, Irena, and their two daughters and a son, in Lubbock, Texas.

He came to Texas from Canada in 1963 on what must have been one of the last passenger trains to stop in Lubbock.

He arrived in Lubbock at the time when Texas Tech University was expanding its foreign language program by adding courses in Slavic languages and Slavic culture, and developing appropriate extracurricular programs.

It was inevitable that Prof. Zyla would discover many additional interests which were to lend direction to his projects and programs. He has built up the Slavic holdings of the library, and organized a Slavic Club and a Slavic Honor Society.

He developed a deep commitment to preserving his Ukrainian heritage, and his publications, presentations and lectures reflected this commitment. He also founded the annual Comparative Literature Symposia, established the Interdepartmental Committee on Comparative Literature and chaired that program for its first 10 years. It is this interest in comparative studies that proved to be his most lasting contribution to Texas Tech University, and the one for which he will be long remembered on the university campus as well as throughout the United States.

Prof. Zyla's research has been notable in both quantity and quality. He is widely recognized as an authority on Ukrainian linguistics and literature.

His co-worker and colleague Prof. Wendell M. Aycock wrote: "Prof. Zyla's service to Texas Tech University has been outstanding. He not only started the annual Comparative Literature Symposia project, but he also nurtured it for 10 years in his role as chairperson of the Interdepartmental Committee on Comparative Literature. He has served on numerous departmental and college committees and has spent many hours during translation duties for almost every department on campus and the Texas Tech Library."

Prof. Zyla's teaching was truly meritorious. His concern for his students, whether he was teaching one or many, caused him to devote the extra effort to preparation for classes that made the difference between a good teacher and an excellent teacher. He made certain that what he told students was not only correct, but also based upon the most recent information available on the subject. He was demanding of his students, but he was also very patient in making certain they understood the information he was presenting to them and what was expected of them. Thus, in his many teaching years, he was truly outstanding.

Another co-worker and colleague, Prof. Norwood Andrews Jr., wrote: "An integral part of Prof. Zyla's approach to his teaching, from sixth-graders to doctoral candidates, and eminently deserving of recognition, is his total commitment to all of his students. His interest in them is not merely genuine but is a part of him. He is always accessible to them, with the result that one can only wonder how he finds the time to maintain his uninterrupted stream of outstanding scholarly publications. Impressive now, this performance becomes truly astonishing in retrospect, for one must never forget the world-class Comparative Literature Symposium which Prof. Zyla created for Texas Tech, providing for its published proceedings an editorial labor of unimpeachable quality herculean proportions."

Prof. Zyla has been honored repeatedly by his colleagues and friends for his work in comparative literature and for the direction he has given that program and its accompanying symposia on the Texas Tech campus. In addition, he has been recognized for his research and teaching, and was selected in 1981 by Mortar Board during Faculty Recognition Week as an outstanding member of the Texas Tech faculty.

With Prof. Aycock, Zyla translated and revised (according to the author's emendations and with a translators' introduction) Ivan Zilynskyj's "A Phonetic Description of the Ukrainian Language" (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979, 212 pp.). The original, "Opis Fonetyczny Jezyka Ukrainskiego," was published in Krakow by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1932.

Prof. Zyla retired in 1986 after faithfully serving Texas Tech University for over two decades. In 1992 he retired from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, having served there for six years.

In 1986-1990 he was chargé d'affairs, for cultural issues in 1990-1992 chargé d'affairs for foreign affairs in the government of the Ukrainian National Republic in exile.

In December 1992 Pope John Paul II named him Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (Civil Class A). Prof. Zyla was recommended for the order as the author of the 30-year history of the Apostolic Exarchate in Germany and Scandinavia (in Ukrainian) and the commemorative booklet "Ukrainsche Katholische Bischofskirche Maria Schutz" - St. Andreas, Munich.

Prof. Zyla is a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences (UVAN), the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Ukrainian Historical Association and other Ukrainian and American scholarly societies.

He is the author of several books, many articles and essays concerning Ukrainian literature and the study of names and numerous reviews in Ukrainian, English and German. He also served as an editor, and co-editor of the 11 volumes of the Proceedings of the Comparative Literature Symposia, as well as other publications.

On June 25, Prof. Zyla celebrated his 80th birthday.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 25, 1999, No. 30, Vol. LXVII

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