OBITUARY: Bohdan Kolinsky, a sports editor at The Hartford Courant, 49 (12/28/03)

OBITUARY

Bohdan Kolinsky, a sports editor at The Hartford Courant, 49

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. - Bohdan M. "Bo" Kolinsky, 49, the assistant sports editor at The Hartford Courant, and for 30 years the paper's high school sports editor, died suddenly on December 14 at Manchester Memorial Hospital.

Mr. Kolinsky was also an active member of the Hartford Ukrainian community, where he was born on November 29, 1954, to the late Paul and Julia (Jakymiw) Kolinsky. He was a member of St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hartford, the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) Hartford branch and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. He was active with the Ukrainian National Home of Hartford, having served on its board of directors for several years.

Mr. Kolinsky was a also an active member of the Ukrainian Golf Association, and was the founder of the Hartford Ukrainian Golf Open, which held its 25th annual tournament this past July.

Mr. Kolinsky, who began directing the Hartford Courant's high school sports coverage in 1973, was president of the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance in 1978-1980 and had been treasurer since 1981. He was one of the principal organizers of the annual Gold Key Dinner and in 1989 received the Art McGinley Award for meritorious service from the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance.

In 1996, at the National High School Athletic Coaches Association awards banquet, he received the District I Distinguished Service Award. The Connecticut High School Coaches Association had given him its Distinguished Service Award in 1984.

In 1987 he received the Distinguished Service Award for work outside the field of athletics from the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors.

Mr. Kolinsky was instrumental in starting the All-State sections in 1984 in conjunction with the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. In 1997 he was elected to the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League Hall of Fame in the honorary member category. He also was an officer of the Jaycee-Courant Baseball League. In 2001 he was inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame and is a member of six other halls of fame.

He was a graduate of Wethersfield High School Class of 1972, completed an associate's degree in media communication from Manchester Community College and attended the University of Connecticut.

As assistant sports editor, Mr. Kolinsky played an important role in The Courant's coverage of the Greater Hartford Open, now known as the Buick Championship. He was an avid golfer and big fan of the University of Connecticut basketball.

Besides his wife, Jill, nee Biancucci, he leaves behind: three brothers, Roman and his wife, Christine, of Newington, Myron Kolinsky of Wethersfield, and Paul and his wife, Heather, of Orlando, Fla.; a sister, Martha, and her husband, Nestor Bojko, of Newington; nine nieces and nephews: Markian, Peter and Andrea Kolinsky of Newington, Julia Ryan and Luke Kolinsky of Orlando, Nicholas, John and Vincent Biancucci of Harwinton, Conn., and Tyler Biancucci of Cromwell, Conn.; his mother-in-law, Katherine Biancucci, of South Windsor; brothers-in-law, Paul Biancucci Jr., and his wife, Laura, of Cromwell, and Jerry Biancucci of Harwinton. Besides his parents, he was predeceased by his father-in-law, Paul Biancucci.

A panakhyda (requiem service) was offered on December 17 at the Samsel and Carmon Funeral Home, and a mass of Christian burial was offered the next day at St. Margaret Mary Church in South Windsor. Burial followed at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Glastonbury, Conn.

On December 15 Scot Gray of WTIC Radio in Hartford dedicated his daily commentary to Mr. Kolinsky. He stated in part: "There's a job opening at the Hartford Courant today. The qualifications are these: A heart large enough to embrace every person you meet as a friend. The unmatched integrity necessary to work 18-hour days in the newspaper business, always balancing fairness and factuality. An ego that can be reproduced a hundred times over, on the head of a pin, with no desire to put yourself ahead of the story. And very big feet. You'll be filling the biggest shoes in the Connecticut sports media. The shoes of Bo Kolinsky, shoes worn by a man whose job it was to make sure stories others more impressed with themselves wouldn't lower themselves to cover were treated with the importance of a Red Sox-Yankees post-season series."

"... every state high school athletic official, every athletic director, every coach and every player who came in contact with Bo felt like they were major league, and to Bo they all were. They were more important, in his mind, than he was, their stories more worth telling than his," Mr. Gray noted.

Reflecting on the genuine esteem in which Mr. Kolinsky was held, the radio commentary underscored: "There isn't a venue in the state that can accomodate all the people who will come to pay their respects for Bo Kolinsky, respect earned more than any by anyone I've ever known."

Memorial donations may be made to the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance, New Haven Register Sports, c/o Sean Barker, 40 Sargent Drive, New Haven, CT 06511, or to the Education Fund for the Ukrainian American Youth Association, 961 Wethersfield Ave., Hartford, CT 06114.

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