ITUARIES: Ilarion Kalynewych, 92, of Maryland, librarian, scholar, artist, benefactor (08/10/03)

OBITUARIES

Ilarion Kalynewych, 92, of Maryland, librarian, scholar, artist, benefactor

by Jurij Dobczansky

WASHINGTON - Dr. Ilarion Kalynewych, also known as Larry Calyn, of Silver Spring, Md., died on July 10 at the Rockville Nursing Home.

Dr. Kalynewych was born on August 31, 1910, in Ruda Siletska, located in the county of Kamianka-Buzka, in the Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. He attended the teacher's college in Sokal in 1926-1930. From the Ukrainian Catholic seminary in Lviv he went on to study theology at the Lviv Theological Academy until 1939, when he moved to Vienna. In 1943 he earned a doctorate in economics from Vienna's College of International Trade.

After emigrating to the United States in 1949, he lived in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and finally settled in Cleveland, where he opened a retail business. In 1960 he earned a master's degree in library science from Western Reserve University. He was certified as a medical librarian by the American Medical Library Association and served as director of the Cleveland State Hospital Library in 1960-1964.

In 1964 he moved to Washington, to accept a position at the National Agricultural Library, where he worked in indexing, bibliography, selection and acquisitions until his retirement in 1984.

Nearly two decades of his retirement were devoted to travel and oil painting, specializing in flowers and landscape scenes. Dr. Kalynewych was a member of the Olney Art Association and the Montgomery County Arts Council. His artwork, signed variously as "Calyn" and "Kalynewych" was exhibited widely in the greater Washington area.

Dr. Kalynewych and his late wife, Donna, were generous benefactors of Ukrainian charitable, religious and scholarly endeavors. Among other donations, the Kalynewyches established a $50,000 endowment at the Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University. They were active parishioners and benefactors of the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family and supported orphanages, church reconstruction and publishing projects in Ukraine.

Washington's Ukrainian community will remember Dr. Kalynewych as an active member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S.A. He served as president of the society's Washington chapter in 1988-1996.

He co-edited "Nadbuzhanshchyna," a three-volume history of the Buh river region of western Ukraine, and he often gave lectures and regularly contributed articles to the Ukrainian press. From 1967 to 1975, Dr. Kalynewych taught religion and sociology at the Taras Shevchenko School of Ukrainian Studies. He was a member of The Washington Group and the Ukrainian Association of the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Predeceased by his wife, Dr. Kalynewych leaves their daughter, Olga Calyn, as well as relatives in Ukraine. A parastas memorial service on July 14 was concelebrated by all three local Ukrainian pastors. Internment was in the Ukrainian section of Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Md.

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