George Y. Shevelov, leading scholar, dead at age 94 (04/21/02)

George Y. Shevelov, leading scholar, dead at age 94

by Dr. Oleksa Bilaniuk

NEW YORK - On the morning of April 12, the Ukrainian community in the United States and in the world lost one of its towering intellects, the philologist, literary scholar, and leading authority in Slavic studies - professor George Y. Shevelov (Yuriy Sherekh). He died in New York at the age of 94.

Yuriy Volodymyrovych Shevelov was born on December 17, 1908, in Lomza, Poland, but grew up, studied and graduated with the candidate degree (1939) in Kharkiv, where in the years 1939-1943 he lectured in Slavic philology. He remained an ardent "Kharkivianyn" throughout his life, even in America.

The maelstrom of the second world war carried the young scholar westward, first to Germany, where in 1946-1949 he lectured at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich and where in 1949 he obtained a doctorate.

Subsequently, in 1950-1952, Prof. Shevelov taught at the University of Lund, Sweden, and in 1952-1954 at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. In 1954 he was invited to join the faculty of Columbia University in New York, where he served as professor of Slavic philology until his retirement in 1977. As visiting professor, he lectured at some of the most prestigious universities of the world, including the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine's capital.

Prof. Shevelov's scholarly output could be compared to that of an entire academic institute. He wrote on etymology, morphology, phonology and syntax of such Slavic languages as Church Slavonic, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Polish, Russian and, most extensively, Ukrainian. In his signal work, "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language," published in 1979, Prof. Shevelov took issue with the habitual Russian theory and showed that the Ukrainian language has had its own characteristic development from early on, on par with that of other great Slavic languages.

His other works - such as "The Syntax of Modern Ukrainian" (1963), "A Prehistory of Slavic: The Historical Phonology of Common Slavic" (1965), "Die ukrainische Schriftsprache, 1798-1965" (1966), "The Ukrainian Language in the First Half of the 20th Century: Its State and Status" (1989) - have greatly contributed to the firm establishment of Ukrainian as a component of Slavic Studies around the globe.

Equally significant was Prof. Shevelov's contribution to literature and literary criticism and to the organized cultural life of the Ukrainian diaspora. In the years 1945-1949 he was vice-president of the literary society MUR (Mystetskyi Ukrainskyi Rukh) in Germany.

In 1959-1961 and 1981-1986 he served as president of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S.A. (UVAN). In 1989 Prof. Shevelov was elected honorary president of UVAN.

In 1991, Prof. Shevelov became one of the first scholars of the Ukrainian diaspora to be elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of (newly independent) Ukraine. In the year 2000, he received the highest civilian honor bestowed by the Government of Ukraine - The National Shevchenko Prize.

Even though Yuriy Volodymyrovych Shevelov has departed, his magnificent spirit will live forever among our future generations.

* * *

A panakhyda service for Prof. Shevelov was held on April 15, followed by a funeral service at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in New York on April 16. Interment will be at Cambridge Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., next to the site where Prof. Shevelov's mother is buried.

A memorial service marking the 40th day of Prof. Shevelov's passing will be held Monday, May 6, to be followed by a memorial program at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences, 206 W. 100th St., in New York. (Details will be announced in the press.)

Dr. Oleksa Bilaniuk is president of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S.A. and professor of physics emeritus at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa.

| Home Page |