OBITUARY: Zynovij Sawyckyj, 93, attorney in Ukraine, administrator in the U.S. (06/18/06)

OBITUARY: Zynovij Sawyckyj, 93, attorney in Ukraine, administrator in the U.S.

RIVERSIDE, Conn. - Zynovij Sawyckyj, 93, who died of cancer at his home in Riverside, Conn., on May 30 waited nearly a century to see his dream of freedom realized in his native Ukraine. He said he was grateful to have lived long enough to witness the peaceful Orange Revolution in November-December 2004, when Ukrainians rose up and reclaimed their political right to determine their own future.

In his long lifetime, he was witness to the cataclysmic changes endured by Ukraine in the 20th century. Born during the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as a child he and his family suffered from the repercussions of the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I. He then lived through Polish rule in Halychyna in the interwar years, Soviet occupation in 1939-1941, followed by Nazi occupation from 1941 onward.

When the Soviet Army advanced upon western Ukraine in 1944, he became part of the mass of 200,000 Ukrainians who chose to emigrate to freedom in the West - the largest political emigration in Ukrainian history. Then came the harrowing journey as a refugee through war-torn Europe, a precarious existence as a displaced person in post-war Germany, resettlement in the United States under the auspices of the United Nations' International Refugee Organization, and the difficult early years as an immigrant in a new land.

In spite of it all, Mr. Sawyckyj felt he had been extremely fortunate to have survived these experiences, and was keenly aware of the disparate fates suffered by his contemporaries, many of whom had been lost at war in competing armies of the great powers, had sacrificed their lives in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), had been deported to Siberia because of their political views or religious beliefs, had perished in Soviet gulags, or had been the casual victims of bombings by enemies or even by allies in the World War II period. This made him even more profoundly grateful to the United States for giving him and his family the opportunity to live as free people and to practice their Ukrainian Catholic faith.

Mr. Sawyckyj was born on November 26, 1912, in Bibrka, in the Lviv region of Ukraine, the only child of the Rev. Josyf and Ludmila (nee Levytska) Sawyckyj. His father was a catechist in the school system in Stryi and the initiator and co-founder of the St. Andrew's Society, a mutual aid society for priests and their families. His mother was a piano teacher, first at the Women's Academy in Peremyshl and later at the Lysenko Ukrainian Music Institute in Stryj.

Mr. Sawyckyj received a broad humanities education in a European-style gymnasium in Stryi, where he studied, among other things, Latin and ancient Greek. He was also an accomplished classical pianist, studying at the Ukrainian Music Institute in Stryi for 10 years.

He studied law at Lviv University, where he received a law degree in 1936. It was there that he met his younger fellow law school student, Teodozia Klufas. The couple were married in 1943.

Mr. Sawyckyj, together with his wife and widowed mother, left Ukraine as war refugees in 1944, as, for the second time, the Soviet army advanced westward toward Lviv. The young couple's two children, a son and daughter, were born during the refugee years, in Poland and Germany, respectively.

In the United States, the Sawyckyj family settled in Utica, N.Y., in 1949. After a period in which he worked at various manual jobs in order to support his family, Mr. Sawyckyj assumed a position as an administrator at the Oneida County Department of Social Services, where he made use of his legal training and mindset to monitor the implementation of government service programs and funding.

Mr. Sawyckyj was active in the cultural life of the Ukrainian community in Utica. For decades he was the piano accompanist for local and visiting Ukrainian singers and artists from the Northeast who performed during cultural events and historical commemorations in Utica and in other Ukrainian communities in upstate New York. For a time he was also the head of the local chapter of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

His wife, Teodozia, was a 47-year activist in the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, on the local, regional and national levels. She dedicated many years of volunteer work to developing the UNWLA's worldwide scholarship program, and Mr. Sawyckyj would frequently find himself doing "mailroom duties" during busy scholarship award periods.

The Sawyckyjs were devoted members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and parishioners at St. Volodymyr the Great Ukrainian Catholic Church in Utica for more than three decades and, after 1983, at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Stamford, Conn. They were also members of The Ukrainian Museum in New York City and over the years supported, on a modest but consistent basis, myriad community organizations and causes, believing this to be their community obligation.

Mr. Sawyckyj took an avid interest in events and issues relating to both Ukraine and the Ukrainian community in the U.S. and the world.

After Ukraine achieved its independence in 1991 following the collapse of the USSR, Mr. Sawyckyj traveled to Ukraine several times with his wife and later with his children and youngest grandson, Maksym. In the last decade of his life, he served in a pro-bono, unofficial capacity as a consultant to the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Museum in Kyiv, whose researchers valued his excellent historical memory, family archives (his mother's side of the family had ties to Hrushevsky's wife), genealogical expertise and sharp intellect, which remained intact until his death.

Mr. Sawyckyj and his wife, who died in 1998, transmitted their knowledge and appreciation of Ukrainian language, culture and history to their children and grandchildren, also leaving behind as their legacy an extensive and detailed family history that awaits publication.

Some of Mr. Sawyckyj's most gratifying moments occurred in the last decade of his life, when, half a century after his emigration from the land of his birth, his grandchildren Danylo and Christine returned for a time to newly independent Ukraine to work and study there, respectively. In addition, in 2004, his son Jurij served as an election observer in Donetsk in the December 26 election in the aftermath of the Orange Revolution.

As Mr. Sawyckyj's life drew to a close, he saw succeeding generations of his family helping to fulfill the dream of a free Ukraine - a dream he had nurtured and held deep in his heart for nearly a century.

Mr. Sawyckyj is survived by his son Jurij Sawyckyj, M.D., of Riverside, Conn.; a daughter, Anisa Handzia Mycak with husband George of Forest Hills, N.Y.; granddaughter Christine Hladky with husband Alexander of Randolph, N.J.; grandson Dan Sawyckyj with wife Natalia of Philadelphia; grandson Maksym Mycak of Forest Hills, N.Y.; and two great-granddaughters, Olenka and Roma Hladky of Randolph, N.J. He also leaves behind a cousin, Ksenia Antypiw of Warren, Mich., and more distant relatives in the U.S., Canada and Ukraine.

A panakhyda was held at Gallagher & Son Funeral Home in Greenwich, Conn., on June 2. A funeral liturgy was celebrated on June 3 at St. Vladimir Ukrainian

Catholic Cathedral in Stamford, where Mr. Sawyckyj was a parishioner for 24 years. Burial was on June 3 at St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Ukrainian Museum, 222 E. Sixth St., New York, NY 10003 (Memo: Zynovij and Dr. Teodozia Sawyckyj Memorial Fund); to the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv through the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation, 2247 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60622-4828 (Memo: Sawyckyj Memorial Fund); or the UNWLA Scholarship Fund (Dr. Teodozia Sawycka Memorial Fund), 171 Main St., P.O. Box 24, Matawan, NJ 07747-0024.

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