Huculak awarded honorary degree (09/09/01)

Huculak awarded honorary degree

EDMONTON - Erast Huculak, who immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in the late 1940s, was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Alberta on June 11. His philanthropic efforts as part of the Ukrainian Canadian community earned him the honor.

Originally from Ukraine, Mr. Huculak's family moved to Canada after the second world war to escape Soviet oppression. Mr. Huculak quickly established himself in Canada, completing a degree in pharmacy at the University of British Columbia. He now owns Medical Pharmacies Ltd., which he founded in 1957. Since then, the company has become the largest supplier of pharmaceuticals to long-term care facilities in Canada, with over 400 employees.

The success of Medical Pharmacies Ltd. has enabled Mr. Huculak to allocate funds and resources for aid to Ukraine in various forms. He founded and headed the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund, which airlifts medical equipment, supplies and medicine to areas affected by the nuclear disaster. The fund has sent over $7 million of supplies to Ukraine since the catastrophic explosion in 1986, and Mr. Huculak has played an active role in the effort, repeatedly travelling to Ukraine to distribute the supplies.

Mr. Huculak has also focused on assisting Ukraine's fledgling government. He led the Canadian Association for the Development of Ukraine, promoting democratization and reform; purchased the building for the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada and donated it to the Ukrainian government; and served as an advisor to President Kuchma. As a sign of gratitude, President Leonid Kuchma presented Mr. Huculak with the President's Medal, an honor never before bestowed upon a Canadian.

In order to deepen the public's understanding of Ukraine, Mr. Huculak has contributed funds for the publication of numerous books on history. He also donated a large sum of money to create the Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography at the University of Alberta, which has become one of the leading Ukrainian ethnography programs in the world. The program conducts research, hosts seminars and conferences, and, of course, instructs talented graduate students.

A Canadian citizen, Mr. Huculak describes his country, according to the Edmonton Journal, as a place of "freedom and opportunities and the chance to forge your own destiny." It was for choosing to use the prosperity of his new land to give something back to his native country and for his unceasing devotion to the welfare of Ukraine and its people that Mr. Huculak was granted the honorary doctorate of laws by the University of Alberta.

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