2000: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

We mourn their passing: leaders in diverse fields

During the year 2000, our community and this newspaper recorded the deaths of a number of individuals known for their activity in diverse fields.

• Solomea Pavlychko, 41, literary scholar, head of the editorial board of the Osnovy publishing house in Kyiv, activist for Ukraine's nascent women's movement - December 31, 1999, Kyiv.
  
  
• The Rev. Dr. Volodymyr Figol, 88, former professor at the Lviv Theological Academy, pastor in Ukraine, Lithuania and the United States; and "confessor of the faith for the Ukrainian Catholic Church" - December 27, 1999, Yonkers, N.Y.
  
  
• Dr. Wasyl Wytwycky, 94, educator, author, critic, composer-conductor and diaspora's eminent contemporary musicologist - December 31, 1999, Summit, N.J.
  
  
• Anatolii Lupynis, 62, former Soviet political prisoner and Ukrainian nationalist leader, and since 1990, head of the political section of the UNA-UNSO - February 4, Kyiv.
  
  
• Zenon Bodnarskyj, 62, leader in the greater Buffalo area's Ukrainian community, including local chapters of Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine and the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund - February 15, Buffalo, N.Y.
  
  
• Patriarch Dymytrii, 85, leader of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church - February 25, Kyiv.
  
  
• Michael Starr (Starchewsky), 89, Ukrainian Canadian political pioneer, member of the Progressive Conservative Party, who held various top positions in government, among them mayor of Oshawa, member of Parliament, minister of labor and House Leader - March 16, Oshawa, Ontario.
  
  
• Michael Kowalsky, 92, major benefactor of Ukrainian studies, foremostly, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Kowalsky Eastern Institute of Ukrainian Studies at Kharkiv University - May 24, Toronto.
  
  
• Ihor Bilozir, 44, popular singer-songwriter, National Artist of Ukraine, leader of the popular Vatra ensemble of the 1980s - died on May 28 as a result of a severe beating after an altercation with Russophone thugs who objected to the composer and friends singing Ukrainian songs in a Lviv café.
  
  
• Georgiy Yakutovych, 70, graphic artist, book designer and artistic director of films, among them the Ukrainian classic "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" - September 5, Kyiv.
  
  
• Petro Honcharenko, 90, longtime president and administrator of the Detroit-based Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, named Honored Artist of Ukraine in 1992 - September 19, South Bound Brook, N.J.
  
  
• Victor G. Kytasty, 57, Ukrainian American professor, administrator, musician, and cultural activist; director of America House, the Foreign Commercial Service, the Ukrainian Office of the Former Members of Congress and consultant to the Council of Advisors to the Verkhovna Rada and to the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy - September 22, Kyiv.
  
  
• Yevdokiia Dychko-Blavatska, 79, known stage actress in western Ukraine and wife of Volodymyr Blavatsky, director of the Lviv Opera Theater; appeared with the Lviv State Drama and Opera theaters and with the Ensemble of Ukrainian Actors in Germany and the United States; director of the Volodymyr Blavatsky Ukrainian Radio Program in Philadelphia - September 30, Philadelphia.
  
  
• Andrew Jula, 89, longtime outstanding member of the Ukrainian National Association Supreme Assembly, who served 10 consecutive terms as advisor, recipient of the Rev. Hryhoriy Hrushka Award in acknowledgment of his many years of dedicated service to the UNA - October 22, Ambridge, Pa.
  
  
• Roman Lewycky, 92, church and youth choir director in New York and New Jersey, bandurist - October 28, Perth Amboy, N.J.
  
  
• Bishop Platon Kornyljak, 80, one-time Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainian Catholics in Germany and Scandinavia - November 1, Munich, Germany.
  
  
• Alexander Blahitka, 52, treasurer of the Ukrainian National Association (1990-1994) - November 29, Blairstown, N.J.
  
  
• Walter Klymkiw, 74, conductor and artistic director of the Koshetz Memorial Choir of Winnipeg, officer of the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada - December 4, Winnipeg.
  
  
• Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, 86, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church - December 14, Metropolitan Palace of St. George Cathedral, Lviv.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 7, 2001, No. 1, Vol. LXIX

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