OBITUARY: Michael Terpak, pioneer in international radio broadcasting (12/15/02)

OBITUARY: Michael Terpak, pioneer in international radio broadcasting

FAIRFAX, Va. - Michael Terpak, a pioneer in international radio broadcasting during the Cold War, died on December 2, in Fairfax, Va., of a brain hemorrhage. In his early work Mr. Terpak was responsible for establishing the Ukrainian section of Radio Liberty and later was chief of Voice of America's Ukrainian Service. He was 85.

Though born in Pennsylvania, Mr. Terpak grew up in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine when his family, which had emigrated to America, returned there in 1920. He graduated from the Uzhhorod Real Gymnasium in 1938.

Prior to World War II, he was a school teacher and school principal in his home village of Gaydosh, near Uzhhorod. He was outspoken about the freedoms that all men should enjoy. He was about to be drafted into the Hungarian army (which had occupied Zakarpattia) when he decided it was time to leave. In 1940, as an American citizen, he was able to return to the United States on one of the last passenger ships to cross the Atlantic before the fall of France.

Shortly after arriving in New York City, Mr. Terpak volunteered to serve in the United States Army. Fluent in several languages, but not, at the time, English, he did not realize he was on his way to New Guinea until he was halfway across the Pacific. There, he contracted malaria and received a medical discharge in 1943. After the war, while holding down a variety of jobs, Mr. Terpak earned a bachelor's degree in Eastern European studies at New York University. He received his master's degree in Slavic languages and literatures from Columbia University in 1950.

In 1947 he married Luba Ukrainia Kowalska at St. George's Ukrainian Catholic Church in New York City.

Mr. Terpak devoted his career to the fight against communism. From 1948 to 1952 he worked for the Eastern European Fund as a senior researcher specializing in Eastern Europe. From 1952 to 1964 he worked for the American Committee for Liberation. The committee sent him to Munich in 1954 to establish the Ukrainian Desk at Radio Liberation (now Radio Liberty), which broadcast to the nationalities within the Soviet Union. It was his work with Radio Liberation that developed his talent in international broadcasting.

In 1964 Mr. Terpak came to Washington to become chief of the Ukrainian Service of the Voice of America. There he was instrumental in greatly increasing the service's airtime, recruited a young and talented staff, and collected an extraordinary group of outside specialists as commentators and contributors to the Ukrainian programs. Throughout his career, he advocated an emphasis on the non-Russian nationalities of the Soviet Union as the natural allies of the United States. He ended his career as deputy director of the USSR Division of VOA, helping direct U.S. broadcasts to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. He retired in 1981.

During the 1970s Mr. Terpak also taught graduate-level cources at the American University in Washington on the minority nationalities within the Soviet Union.

Mr. Terpak was active in Epiphany of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church in Annandale, Va., singing in the men's choir and working with the men's club. He often gave talks on the history of the Rusyn people - those from the sub-Carpathian mountain region - who founded the church.

After his retirement, Mr. Terpak learned to play golf, improved his woodworking skills, and enjoyed the company of his wife, four children and 10 grandchildren. During this time, he wrote and published his memoirs in both Ukrainian and English.

Mr. Terpak was a member of Ukrainian National Association Branch 361.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Luba; his four children, Michael of Great Falls, Daria Parrell of Fairfax, Paul of McLean and Chris Terpak-Malm of Centreville; and his 10 grandchildren, Kalyna, Stephanie and Peter Malm, Michael, Madelaine and Alex Terpak, Ricky and Natalie Parrell, and Lucia and Jamie Terpak. All live in Virginia.

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