Eugene Iwanciw, second vice-president of UNA, Washington activist, dies at 53 (03/05/06)

Eugene Iwanciw, second vice-president of UNA, Washington activist, dies at 53

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Eugene Iwanciw, second vice-president of the Ukrainian National Association and former director of the UNA Washington Office, has died, it was learned on Saturday, February 25. He was 53.

Mr. Iwanciw was a UNA supreme advisor in 1974-1978 and 1982-1998, and in 2002 was elected second vice-president of the UNA. In addition, since 2003 he was chairman of the Baltimore District Committee of the UNA.

He was the director of the UNA Washington Office during the entire period the office existed, 1988-1995. In 1996-2000 he was a member of the board of directors of the UNA's Ukrainian National Foundation.

A lifelong member of UNA Branch 234, Mr. Iwanciw was born on May 16, 1952, in Elizabeth, N.J. After graduating from St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, N.J., he moved to Washington to attend Georgetown University. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Russian area studies. He also attended summer courses in Ukrainian studies at Harvard University.

In his youth, he was a member of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization and the Mykola Michnowsky Student Society (TUSM).

Mr. Iwanciw became active in the Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations of America (known by its Ukrainian-based acronym as SUSTA), first as special assignments director (1972), then as vice-president (1972-1973) and finally as president (1973-1975).

As SUSTA president he traveled around the United States to organize student clubs. During one such trip in 1975 he visited with students in Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Houston.

As a student activist he also chaired the Committee for the Defense of Valentyn Moroz and organized various actions in defense of the imprisoned national and human rights activist, including a hunger strike in front of the White House.

In 1974, at the age of 22, Mr. Iwanciw became the youngest person ever elected to the UNA Supreme Assembly (later known as the General Assembly). He was a UNA advisor for five terms, during which he also was involved with the UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine and served on the UNA Centennial Committee, the Ukrainian Heritage Defense Committee, and committees on youth, Soyuzivka, finance, by-laws and publications. He also worked on projects for the National Fraternal Congress of America, of which the UNA is a member-organization.

In 1989-1990 Mr. Iwanciw chaired the UNA Convention Committee for the 1990 conclave held in Baltimore. Also in 1990 he was part of a UNA delegation that traveled to Ukraine for the second congress of Rukh, the Popular Movement of Ukraine. While in Ukraine that delegation - which also included Supreme President Ulana Diachuk, Supreme Secretary Walter Sochan and Supreme Advisor and The Ukrainian Weekly Editor-in-Chief Roma Hadzewycz - also met with officials at Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the possibility of opening a Kyiv Press Bureau. (The bureau became reality in January 1991.)

Mr. Iwanciw's other Ukrainian community affiliations included the Association of Ukrainians in Washington, The Washington Group (of which he was a founding member in 1984 and its first public relations director), the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the Ukrainian Republican Federation and the National Committee to Commemorate the Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine.

He worked on the staffs of Sen. James Buckley of New York, Sen. Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In addition, he worked on various Republican Party bodies, including the Republican Heritage Foundation and the Republican National Finance Committee.

He was also a member of the Ukrainian American Caucus, which brought together individuals who worked in the political arena in Washington and was aimed at increasing the effectiveness of Ukrainian Americans working in the nation's capital. Later he was executive director of the Ukrainian American Political Action Committee.

In 1977 Mr. Iwanciw was one of the organizers of a UNA Week in Washington, an effort aimed at acquainting members of Congress with the situation in Ukraine. Similar lobbying efforts were held in subsequent years. In 1983 he helped organize a hearing on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture and at the same time worked for passage of a concurrent congressional resolution that designated November 4, 1984, as a day to remember the genocidal Famine's victims.

Mr. Iwanciw was tapped in the early 1980s by UNA President John O. Flis to serve as the fraternal organization's representative in Washington for liaison with the White House.

In 1988, when the UNA established its Washington Office with the aim of making Ukrainian Americans' voices heard, Mr. Iwanciw was named its director. He was employed in that capacity through September 1995. However, even after the office's closing, he continued to represent the UNA's interests in Washington, including on the Central and East European Coalition, of which the UNA, through its Washington Office, was a founding member.

While he was director of the UNA Washington Office Mr. Iwanciw wrote news stories and commentaries on political developments. His regular column in The Ukrainian Weekly was called "Letter from Washington."

After the UNA Washington Office was closed, Mr. Iwanciw established EMI Associates, a consulting firm specializing in government relations and business development in Central and Eastern Europe.

In 2002 Mr. Iwanciw, along with five other individuals, was honored by the UCCA for playing a key role in helping the Ukrainian National Information Service during the early years of its existence; he and the others received UNIS Co-Founder Awards.

His activity also included lecturing, primarily on foreign policy, at the Foreign Service Institute and various universities, including Harvard, Syracuse and American universities.

In 2003 Mr. Iwanciw, a resident of Arlington, Va., was elected president of the Inter-Service Club Council of Arlington, an umbrella organization of 32 service clubs. As well, he was president of the Optimist Club of Arlington, where he had been an officer since 2001. His civic contributions included tutoring students in the Arlington school system. In addition he was active in Leadership Arlington, the Arlington County Republican Committee, and the county's Chamber of Commerce and Historical Society.

A parastas was scheduled to take place on Friday, March 3, at Lytwyn and Lytwyn Funeral Home in Union, N.J. A funeral liturgy was to be held the next day at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in Elizabeth, N.J., with interment to follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover, N.J.

To honor Mr. Iwanciw, the Ukrainian National Association has established the Eugene Iwanciw Heritage Scholarship Fund (see announcement on page 7 of this issue).

Surviving are Mr. Iwanciw's parents, Anna and Michael Iwanciw, his sister, Irene Koczerzuk, and extended family. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that memorial donations be made to The Ukrainian Museum in New York.

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