1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The noteworthy: people and events (12/26/99)

1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The noteworthy: people and events

Some major happenings and achievements defy easy categorization, ergo this section: the noteworthy people and events of 1999 (listed in chronological order).

Wolodymyr Bilajiw, chief of Voice of America's Ukrainian service since 1991, retired on December 31, 1998. Mr. Bilajiw joined VOA in 1984 and witnessed many of the events during and after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The VOA Ukrainian Branch celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
Myron Holubiak, 52, was appointed president of Roche Labs, a subsidiary of Hoffmann La Roche, on January 1. Roche Labs, located in Nutley, N.J., has revenues of over $2.8 billion annually and 3,500 employees.
The New Jersey State League of Municipalities inducted Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky into the Elected Officials Hall of Fame during the Seventh Annual Mayors Legislative Day on January 27 at the State House Annex in Trenton. The honor is reserved for local municipal governing body members who as of December 1998 served for more than 20 years in elected municipal office. Mr. Pikolycky has served the Borough of Woodbine for 12 years as council member and eight years as mayor.
The New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame honored Bell Labs scientists Andrew Chraplyvy and Kenneth Walker and former Bell Labs scientist Robert Tkach as inventors of the year at a banquet on February 18 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Bell Labs is the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies. Drs. Chraplyvy, Walker and Tkach were honored for their invention of optical fiber for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), a technology that allows transmission of digitized information over multiple wavelengths, or colors, of light to increase the capacity of communications systems. Their invention has been incorporated into Lucent's TrueWave optical fiber, designed for very high capacity communications systems.
The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada honored Cyril (Kyrylo) Genik (1857-1925) on February 15 in Winnipeg, during the celebration of Canada's Heritage Day and commemoration of Canada's Citizenship and Heritage Week. Mr. Genik was one of the foremost leaders of the first wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada (1891-1914) from western Ukraine. He was the head of the second group of immigrants to arrive in Canada in 1896. Because of his education and knowledge of languages, including English, as well as excellent diplomatic skills, he was appointed an immigration agent by the government of Canada. He became the first federal civil servant of Ukrainian ancestry in Canada.
On March 3, Syracuse University recognized Dr. Patricia Burak, director of the university's Office of International Services, with the "Chancellor's Citation for Distinguished Service." This award is granted annually to individuals who have made an important difference in the lives of students, faculty and members of the community. Dr. Burak was acknowledged by the chancellor of the university as "the head, heart and soul of the university's widely admired services to its international students." He complimented her "extraordinary commitment to caring" and her expertise that is acknowledged worldwide through her book, "Crisis Management in a Cross-Cultural Setting," which is used by numerous campuses and institutions.
Borislaw N. Bilash, a science teacher at James Caldwell High School in New Jersey, received the Radio Shack/Tandy Scholar Award. Mr. Bilash was honored for his merit and innovative teaching as a science educator for the past 13 years. He was chosen from 1,600 nominees as one of the top 100 science, math and computer teachers in the country. Mr. Bilash received the award in March in Boston at the National Science Teachers Convention.
The State Statistics Committee of Ukraine reported that Ukraine's population totaled 49.98 million as of April 1. At the beginning of 1999 the population totaled 50.1 million. The ratio between urban and rural dwellers is now approximately 3:1.
Halyna Kolessa, director of the string program and string orchestra conductor at the Jefferson Arts House in Elizabeth, N.J., was one of 24 members of the New Jersey Education Association named as 1998-1999 Dodge Fellows. Ms. Kolessa holds master's degrees of music in viola from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. She completed a post-graduate professional studies program at the Juilliard School.
Georgie Pocheptsov, 7, is a prolific artist whose work has won much recognition. Some of his paintings have sold for as high as $9,000. On May 3 one of his paintings was presented as a "Commitment to Children" award to Gen. Colin Powell at the Advertising Council's 49th Washington Conference. The painting depicts the bond between parent and child, an appropriate theme for Gen. Powell's contributions to improving the lives of children across the country.
A team of three climbers, including Vladislav Terziul and Vasyl Kopytko of Odesa, and Volodymyr Horbach of Kyiv, reached the top of Mount Everest on May 8 and planted the Ukrainian national flag on the 8,848-meter peak. They were part of a group of climbers attempting to climb the mountain as part of the first Ukrainian national expedition to Mount Everest. However, tragedy struck the expedition as they descended to 8,600 meters and ran into a snowstorm that dumped 60 centimeters of snow in 20 minutes. Messrs. Terziul and Horbach survived and continued the descent. Mr. Kopytko disappeared. The 10-day rescue mission was called off on May 19. Technical assistance for the rescue effort came from Italy and the United States.
For 40 years Marie Halun Bloch's library served as reference for the 18 books she wrote, including "Aunt America," "The Two Worlds of Damyan," "Displaced Person". In 1998 Mrs. Bloch died at the age of 88. Her library of about 900 volumes in Ukrainian and English, appraised at $14,140, was donated to The Ukrainian Cultural Center in Dickinson, N.D., this year. In addition to the donation of the books, and covering the cost of appraising, cataloguing and shipping, Mrs. Bloch's daughter, Hillary Bloch Hopkins, donated the cost of building shelving for the books at the institute. She also sponsored a bookplate, designed by North Dakota artist Rosemary Demaniow, which was placed in the books alongside the original bookplate designed for Mrs. Bloch by Jacques Hnizdovsky. The new bookplate reads, "Gift of Marie Halun Bloch, Daughter of Ukraine, Citizen of America."
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations (OSI) initiated a new case against John Demjanjuk on May 19, seeking to once again strip him of his U.S. citizenship. More than 20 years ago the OSI began proceedings against Mr. Demjanjuk, accusing him of being "Ivan the Terrible" of the Treblinka death camp. After being denaturalized and extradited to Israel for a trial on war crimes and crimes against humanity, Mr. Demjanjuk was convicted, but the conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court. The OSI now charges that Mr. Demjanjuk was a guard at several other Nazi camps.
Montclair State University honored Metropolitan Opera bass Paul Plishka with an honorary doctorate degree on May 14. Mr. Plishka, who studied music at Montclair State, is noted for an extraordinary voice and impeccable artistry that combine to make him one of the world's foremost singers. A leading member of the Metropolitan Opera since 1967, he regularly appears with other major opera companies. Mr. Plishka has sung in more than 1,000 performances.
A Ukrainian sailing enthusiast and his crew began a journey around the globe, sailing from Kyiv the week of May 15. Their aim: to let the international community know about Ukraine. The project coordinators of the "Discover Ukraine" journey have set three goals for themselves: to get to Spain by the summer for celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Spanish Armada; to be in the United States for Fourth of July celebrations in 2000; and to get back to Ukraine within five years. "Discover Ukraine" was conceived by Dmytro Birioukovitch, 59, an engineer and a lifelong yachting enthusiast, who has sailed 24,000 miles of the Mediterranean and the Black seas. Mr. Birioukovitch, who calls himself "an active Ukrainian patriot," said the idea for an around-the-world yacht trip came to him after traveling to far-flung places, such as Turkey, Israel and France, he was often asked whose flag he was flying followed by the question, "Where's that?"
A cache of 216 unique photographs and negatives of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) activities was found in June near the village of Yavoriv, in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. A young boy found the photos in a rotting tree trunk. Locals surmise that the metal box of photos had been hidden inside the hollow of the tree many years ago. The UPA photos will be published in a commemorative album in honor of the 50th anniversary of the death of UPA Commander Roman Shukhevych.
The California State Historic Landmark - Ukraina - was unveiled at Garin Regional Park on May 15. The site immortalizes the Rev. Agapius Honcharenko, who lived on the rolling California hills for 43 years in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was born Andrii Humnytsky on August 31, 1832, in Kyiv gubernia. An Orthodox priest and a descendant of a Kozak family, he was sent to Athens in 1857 to serve as deacon at the Russian embassy's church. He began to contribute articles to Alexander Herzen's Kolokol for which he was arrested in 1860, but escaped and immigrated to the United States in 1865. He was, in fact, the first Ukrainian political émigré to the United States. In San Francisco he established a newspaper - The Alaska Herald, with a Russian- and Ukrainian-language supplement, Svoboda - aimed at the inhabitants of recently purchased Alaska. He published the paper single-handedly from 1868 to 1872, glorifying the Ukrainian Kozaks, Shevchenko's poetry, defending democracy and individual freedom; he attacked Russian imperialism, the corruption of the Russian Church, and capitalist monopolies. He prepared the "Russo-English Phrase Book" (1868) for American soldiers serving in Alaska. He retired to a farm that he named "Ukraina Ranch." There, in the early 1900s, a group of Ukrainian immigrants from Canada and Galicia organized a short-lived commune called the Ukrainian Brotherhood. The Rev. Honcharenko died May 5, 1916, in Hayward, Calif.
Tamara Denysenko was elected president of the Ukrainian National Credit Union Association (UNCUA) at the organization's annual meeting June 27 in Washington. Ms. Denysenko is the first woman to be elected as president of UNCUA in the association's 45-year history. UNCUA is an association of 22 Ukrainian American credit unions that serves more than 75,000 customers nationwide with combined assets exceeding $1.25 billion.
The Pan American Games, featuring athletes from North and South America, were held in Winnipeg from July 23 to August 8. Among the 3,000 performers at the official opening ceremonies on July 23, at Winnipeg Stadium was a significant Ukrainian contingent. Towards the second half of the opening program some 27 multicultural dance groups - including seven Ukrainian dance groups from Winnipeg and the surrounding area performed. In total, some 120 Ukrainian dancers were featured in the cultural celebration. Another feature of the opening ceremonies was the singing and dancing performance of Ukrainian Canadian Jeremy Kushnier, 23, the featured star of the Broadway production of "Footloose." Many Ukrainians also participated in the mass choir of over 250 voices. The entire opening show was choreographed by Ukrainian Canadian Brenda Gorlick of Winnipeg.
The last day of broadcasts for the Ukrainian Broadcasting Network's satellite radio and television programming from Ukraine and its five-day-a-week morning AM radio program, "Ranok z Namy," which served the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area, was August 6. Due to a severe financial crisis at SkyView World Media (formerly Ethnic American Broadcasting Company), the owner of Ukrainian Broadcasting Network (UBN), the company eliminated its weakest networks, among them UBN. Also eliminated were the Italian and Filipino networks. Among those remaining are the Russian, subcontinent Indian, Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic networks.
On August 16 U.S. News & World Report published a double issue dedicated to "The Year 1000: what life was like in the last millennium" replete with historical inaccuracies about Ukraine. In the section called "Heroes: fearless, devout and terrifying," the following caption was included: "In converting Kievan Rus, Vladimir made Russia what it is today." The sidebar on Grand Prince Vladimir (referred to as "king" in another sidebar) is titled "A trader in theology: The mercantile origins of Russian orthodoxy." The sidebar incorrectly notes that Volodymyr converted his subjects "to the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity" and in the next paragraph informs readers that his "choice was by no means a foregone conclusion" as "there were Catholics among Vladimir's ancestors." A timeline in the first millennium issue gives the following information: "980 - With the help of Vikings, Vladimir establishes the first Russian dynasty in Kiev." There is a fold-out map that identifies what should properly be called Kyivan Rus' as Kievan Russia, followed by the description, in parentheses, "Viking descendants," leading one to understand that there were no people on those territories before the Vikings arrived. A fact box on "Viking Kingdoms" notes that the Vikings "went ... east to settle Russia." The on-line version of the magazine, included lists of sources for more information, all of them Russian: the Russian Embassy in Washington, the Russian Studies Program at Bucknell University (which is linked to the site of none other than the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church), and something called RussiaNet.
Thanks to the work of Yuri Gawdiak and his NASA research team, NASA astronauts may soon have access to a softball-sized personal satellite assistant floating around taking care of time-consuming tasks. The Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) is an astronaut support device designed to move and operate independently in the micro gravity environment of space. The PSA will monitor the space station's environment, testing sensors, fans, communication control and navigation, and will even be able to make minor repairs, leaving the astronauts free to work on other matters. Due to its size, the PSA will be able to investigate areas of the spacecraft that people cannot. The PSA was presented at a Silicon Valley conference on data fusion this summer. Today, the concept mock-up, which is about the size of a basketball, floats over a table on Earth. Yuri Gawdiak, 36, originally of Silver Spring, Md., dreamed of working for NASA since he was a child. Mr. Gawdiak is a team experiment lead engineer at NASA, Ames Research Center (ARC) in California.
For over 50 years Eudokia Sorochaniuk, 80, has been embroidering, weaving, collecting and teaching Ukrainian folk art. This year the National Endowment for the Arts recognized her achievements with a National Heritage Fellowship, the country's most prestigious honor in the folk and traditional arts. Mrs. Sorochaniuk and other 1999 recipients of the National Heritage Fellow awards were honored on September 28 during a special ceremony in Washington in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building. Bill Ivey, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, presented awards to 13 artists from 12 different states in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments as master artists, teachers, innovators and protectors of cultural heritage. She will also receive a $10,000 grant and hopes to use the money to publish a book on the art of "nyzynka" embroidery.
In order to better define the college's identity to prospective students and more accurately depict its position in the academic community, Manor Junior College changed its name to Manor College this autumn. With the name change, Manor hopes to discourage students who thought attending Manor would be like an extension of high school or attending a prep school and encourage prospective students who are better suited for a small school and who have achieved scholastically.
"The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression" has been published in English translation by Harvard University Press, and is now available in North America. The 878-page publication is a well-documented (many sources are from Soviet archives) review of Communist crimes on four continents. Its authors, some of them former Communists, are scholars associated with the Centre d'Étude d'Histoire et Sociologie du Communisme and its review, Communisme.
The new millennium now has an official egg-decorator. Maria Wowk, 73, set out two years ago to produce 2,000 pysanky as symbols of new life in commemoration of the coming epoch. This monumental undertaking has been completed, and Mrs. Wowk's home is now filled with pysanky. She was inspired in her effort by seeing Pope John Paul II on television, urging his followers to make spiritual endeavors.
Larissa Paschyn, 14, a student of Parma Senior High School, competed in the Discovery Young Scientists Challenge in Washington. Larissa was selected from over 50,000 students around the country that competed at state and regional science fairs; 4,000 of these students were selected for the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge; and 40 finalists competed in the final challenge held October 13-17 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Scholarships were presented to the top 10 winners along with a variety of special awards. Larissa's project was titled "Wetland or Wasteland." She was awarded 10th place in the overall competition. In addition, she won a special award offered by the Travel Channel: the "Dream Science Trip." Finalists completed an essay describing their dream science trip, and Larissa wrote that her desire was to visit a site on the Dnipro River in Ukraine where remnants of the Trypillian culture were discovered in 1893.
Michael Furdyk, a 16-year-old Internet entrepreneur, made headlines across Canada when he and his two high-school-aged partners sold their venture of six web sites and six e-mail newsletters, called MyDesktop.com, to one of the pioneers of the on-line publishing industry, internet.com LLC of Westport, Conn. for more than $1 million (Canadian).

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