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22 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 2015 OBITUARY NADIA VINYCH Overcoming a Hard Start in Life Nadia Shkarupa Vinych, a founding mem- ber of Branch 38 (Denver, CO) of the UNWLA, passed away on November 19, 2014, in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, after a long ill- ness. She was 88. Her fu- neral, attended by many Soyuzianky , family, and friends, was held on De- cember 6, 2014, at Crown Hill Cemetery. In 1975, Nadia Vinych joined Daria Yavor- ivska, Theodosia Fedak, and Maria Figlus to found Branch 38 of the UNWLA in Denver. She served in many positions through the years, including branch vice president in 1986, president from 1986 to 1988, and secretary from 1997 to 1998. She con- tributed her hard work and good humor wherever and whenever it was needed in the growth of the branch and the Ukrainian community in Denver. She helped organize exhibits, performances, and banquets for the many renowned Ukrainians who visited Denver, including political prisoners of the USSR, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations, scholars, artists, performers, and writers. As the UNWLA representative on the Committee to Commemorate the Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, Nadia took a leading role in organizing many of the festivities. After the nuclear catastrophe in Chornobyl, Nadia worked tirelessly to create a memorial to the victims. Her efforts resulted in a commemorative bench in Denver’s Cheesman Park. Speakers at the 1987 bench installation included Denver Mayor Federico Pena, U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder, and State Senator Dennis Gallagher. In subsequent years, events marking the anniversaries of Chorno- byl have been held at the inscribed bench. The placement of the granite bench was additionally significant since commemorative structures are not allowed in the centrally located Cheesman Park. Nadia was a survivor of the Great Famine of 1932-33. After resettling in the United States, she was one of the courageous witnesses who testi- fied at hearings before the congressional commit- tee about the genocide of more than seven million Ukrainians by the Soviet regime. In 2008, at the 75th anniversary marking the Great Famine, Nadia came forward to talk with Denver media about the horrors of her early life and took an active part in the UNWLA’s symposium on the Great Famine. Despite difficult experiences in her early life, her sunny disposition never lagged. Nadia was easy to work with, and her door was open to all. She listened, advised, and also fed her visitors since she was a renowned cook. Nadia Shkarupa was born on April 14, 1926, in Krasnodar, Krasnodarsky Krai, Kuban, in southern Russia to a well-to-do Ukrainian family. As a child, she witnessed the arrest of family mem- bers during Stalin’s purges. The family suffered another tragedy when Nadia’s three-year-old brother died in 1932 of pneumonia. The family survived the famine and moved west to Stalino, present-day Donetsk. When Ger- many invaded the Soviet Union and captured east- ern Ukraine, Nadia, as a teenager, learned German and was trained as a typist and file clerk, working at BHO: Bergwerks und Hütten-Gesellschaft Ost, a mining company developing the rich lodes of coal in the Donetsk area. Thus, she became the family’s principal breadwinner. As the German Army began its retreat in 1943, those who worked for the occupying forces were considered collaborators by the Soviet au- thorities and Nadia’s family once again was on the move, halting for a time in Poland, before walking across central Europe to Hermansthal in present- day Czech Republic. Toward war’s end, the family moved west again, reaching the American Zone in southern Germany where they settled in a refugee camp for displaced persons at Bamberg. From there the family moved to the Bavarian city of Bay- reuth. The family escaped the deportations back to the Soviet Union and life normalized enough for Nadia to enroll in a nursing class. Eventually the Shkarupa family obtained U.S. visas. Nadia’s parents immigrated in 1948, and Nadia followed a year later, joining her family in Chi- cago. Nadia learned English—her fourth language— and completed coursework to be a laboratory techni- cian and worked while going to school. In 1955, she married Victor Vinych, and the couple moved to Colorado shortly thereafter, where they raised a family and became active in the growing Ukrainian community. As her husband Victor developed a ca- reer as an engineer, Nadia raised their three chil- dren while also working. She was a translator in the state court system and also worked at the U.S. Bu- reau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado. She also taught Russian at the Berlitz School of languages. Victor Vinych died in October 2010. Nadia is survived by daughters Melany Cooper and Anna Taylor, son John Vinych, and six grandchildren.
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