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Born at Elphinstone on 1 March 1910, son of Anna Dziewer, he attended the Brandon Normal School and, over the next 40 years, taught at Rossburn School, Elphinstone School, and Minnedosa North School (1952-1953). He served as the Principal of Sandy Lake School (1946-1952) and McCreary School (1953-1956). In 1956, he moved to Fort Frances, Ontario where he taught for 16 years in the local high school, retiring in 1974. While teaching, he attended summer school and received BA and BEd degrees from the University of Manitoba, an MA from the University of Ottawa, and a PhD from the Ukrainian Free University of Munich, Germany. He translated first-person accounts by Ukrainian pioneers to Canada during the period from 1891 and 1914, and in 1978 published the book Land of Pain, Land of Promise based on them. He also co-edited a pocket book guide Ukraine and Ukrainians in 1984-1985. He died at Fort Frances on 27 July 1990.

Bohdan Medwidsky was born in 1936 in Stanislaviv in interwar Poland (present day Ivano-Frankivs'k in Ukraine) in the family of Konstantyn and Natalia (nee Lebedowych) Medwidsky. He was separated from his family at the age of 2, and grew up in Switzerland where he learned to speak French and German. When he was 12, he was reunited with his family in Vienne and that's where he first met his younger brother Wolodymyr. The family came to Canada on a ship from Hamburg to Quebec City as a post-WWII refugee in 1949. They settled in Toronto, where Bohdan's family operated a pharmacy. Both Bohdan and Wolodymyr were active in Plast, Ukrainian scouts organization. The family attended St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic church, a converted Presbyterian building, whose members were almost all also recent Ukrainian immigrants.

Bohdan attended Huron school in Toronto in his first year, then switched to Howard Park. He attended Humberside High School. He enjoyed history best among all his subjects. When he completed high school, Bohdan continued on to university. He was interested in furthering his Ukrainian studies, and chose that as his major field. He was quite committed to academics, and knew early that he wanted to continue into graduate school. His parents didn’t particularly push him to become a Ukrainianist, but neither did they discourage it.

Bohdan di his graduate studies at the University of Toronto. Toronto had a well developed Russian program, but little Ukrainian studies at that time. There were two graduate courses in Ukrainian literature, taught by Professor George Luckyj. Though Bohdan had declared a research interest in Ukrainian linguistics, he attended more classes on Russian literature than Ukrainian, and more on Ukrainian literature than linguistics. Professor Luckyj’s own research specialization dealt with Ukrainian literary politics in the early Soviet period. Bohdan’s classmate Danylo Struk pushed to be allowed to write his dissertation on a Ukrainian literature topic, rather than a Russian one, which in a way paved the way for Bohdan who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the language of Vasyl' Stefanyk's novels.

After a short teaching contract at Carlton University in Ottawa, he moved to Edmonton in 1971, when he received a teaching position at the University of Alberta. In 1977, he offered his first class in Ukrainian Folklore. Soon after, several class offerings grew into a graduate program in Ukrainian Folklore, third folklore program in Canada to offer both master's and PhD degrees. Medwidsky became the founder of the Ukrainian Folklore Archives and in 1989, established the Ukrainian Folklore Archives Endowment Fund.

Over the years, Dr. Medwidsky was very active in professional societies in Alberta, Canada, and abroad, as well as in numerous Ukrainian community organizations. In the late 1970s, he served to develop bilingual Ukrainian school programs in Alberta supported by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. He was a founding member of the Ministerial Advisory Board to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village in 1982. Bohdan Medwidsky served on the board of the Friends of the Ukrainian Village Society, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Association of Ukrainian Writers Slovo, the Alberta Society for Advancement of Ukrainian Studies, the Ukrainian Pioneers Association of Alberta, the Alberta Ukrainian Commemorative Society, the Western Canadian Branch of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and many other organizations.

Ashley Halko-Addley, born September 1, 1995 in Regina, Saskatchewan, is the youngest of three children to Kathy and the late Wayne Halko. Ashley was baptized Ukrainian Orthodox at the Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Melnychuk) near Tuffnell, SK.. Throughout school, she participated in Ukrainian dance and danced with the Chaban Ukrainian Dance Ensemble and Zabutnyy Dance Company in Regina, and the Cudworth Ukrainian Dance Club. While attending university for her undergraduate degree in Saskatoon, she was a member of the Solovei Ukrainian Dance Group and the Lastiwka Ukrainian Orthodox Choir. While attending university for her graduate degree in Edmonton, she was involved with the Veeteretz School of Ukrainian Dance and the Viter Ukrainian Dancers and Folk Choir (choir member).

Ashley attended the University of Saskatchewan from 2013-17, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts High Honours degree in Anthropology with a minor in Ukrainian Studies. Ashley was on the Dean's List (top 5%) each year, and in 2017, she was awarded the Most Outstanding Graduate in Anthropology from the College of Arts and Science. Ashley spent five weeks in Ukraine in 2016 studying Anthropology and language at the Ternopil National Pedagogical University, as part of the St. Thomas More College Spring Session in Ukraine program. During her undergraduate degree, Ashley received numerous awards and scholarships, including the John Russell Kowalchuk Award in Ukrainian Studies, the Ukrainian Self-Reliance Association Language Award, the Rose Semko-Hrynchuk Scholarship, the Leo J. Krysa Family Undergraduate Scholarship, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Saskatchewan Provincial Council Community Achievement Award in the Youth Achievement category.

Ashley was very active in the Ukrainian student movement. In her first two years of university, Ashley was a resident of St. Petro Mohyla Institute. During that time, she sat on the executive of the Kameniari Ukrainian Student Society, serving her first term as Treasurer, and second term as President. She served three terms on the executive of the University of Saskatchewan Ukrainian Students’ Association, as Mohyla Representative, Vice-President Internal, and co-President. Ashley also sat on the board of directors of the Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union (SUSK) for three terms, as Alumni Director for two years, and as Executive Vice-President for one year. Ashley also sat on the University of Alberta Ukrainian Students’ Society executive as Media Technician.

She has worked as a Museum Assistant at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada in Saskatoon, Marking Assistant for Ukrainian language classes at the University of Saskatchewan, as Assistant Director in the two sessions: children and teens at Green Grove Camp, Wakaw Lake, as counsellor at St. Petro Mohyla Institute’s Ukrainian Summer Immersion Cultural & Language Program, as a Research Assistant at the Kule Folklore Centre, and at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.

Ashley moved to Edmonton in September 2017. She completed her Master of Arts in Media and Cultural Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies in 2019. Ashley received the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s (SSHRC CGS-M) in 2018. Her research topic was the Ukrainian wax healing ceremony on the Canadian Prairies.

Roman Andrew Brytan was born in Edmonton, AB, on December 4, 1959 to Michael and Annie Brytan. Roman was married to Suzanna Brytan (nee Sidlar). They had five children. Roman was the voice of the Ukrainian community across Alberta, as he worked with CKER Radio 1480-turned 101.7 World FM, from March 1982 until November 2017. Over these 35 years, Roman's practice of his calling brought together all parts of the Ukrainian Canadian community, as he was regularly called upon to host and MC many events - local, provincial, national and international. Roman devoted his life to his community and to his family. He always said that his children kept him young, and instilled in them a pride in their heritage, culture and traditions. A broadcaster, song-writer, playwright, poet, lyricist, deejay, movie actor and event producer, Roman was the consummate showman, making sure that any event associated with his name was carried out with the utmost of professionalism and flare. His work was a credit to the Ukrainian community, elevating the efforts of its arts sector beyond its own expectations. His devotion to the Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM) was evidenced by the many years he spent as local, and later national, president. Roman was a keynote speaker on many subjects connected to media and community, and in his later years, he earned the respect of his peers, playing the role of mentor and "elder statesman" to younger generations who sought his counsel. Roman passed away on November 26, 2018, at the age of 58 years.

Nick was born in the village of Shepenets in Bukovyna, on February 5, 1907 where he learned to play the dulcimer (cymbaly) at the age of 8. His uncle, a professional bandmaster, taught Nick the fundamentals of the instrument and he joined his uncle playing weddings and parties around the countryside. By the age of 12 years Nick Mischi was considered a professional by many musicians in Ukraine. In 1928 Nick left his homeland and immigrated to Canada. Having left his dulcimer with his uncle, Nick purchased another in Winnipeg in 1930. Nick Mischi played with a variety of orchestras in and around Winnipeg before moving west to Edmonton in the 1930's. His early career was limited because he moved across western Canada. Each place he lived, Nick picked up his dulcimer and joined a local band. Over the 77 years of his playing career, 63 he contributed in Edmonton and Central Alberta. Some of the musicians Nick played with in and around Edmonton are: Bill Boychuk (Easy Aces), Joe Trachyk (The Marango's), Peter Kassian (Sons of the Ukrainian Pioneers), Ron Lakustra's Orchestra.

As early as the 1930's Nick played on a variety of radio stations. In the 1950's Nick Mischi entertained radio audiences in the Edmonton area on radio shows, which were started by Henry Smichure on C.F.R.N. and C.H.F.A. radios. These programs were live at sponsors premises as well as live shows at the radio studios. When C.F.C.W. radio started their "Ukrainian Hour" program some 33 years ago, Nick was asked to preform many times.

Judging dulcimer competitions for many years, in places like Lakeview Pavilion, Red Barn, Vegreville Pysanka Festival and Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, in which he competed as well, Nick won many first place trophies and earned a reputation as one of Alberta's finest dulcimer (cymbaly) players.

Throughout the years during his playing career Nick cut many records with different orchestra's. His favourite was "Dulcimer in Concert" which was recorded with a nine piece Chamber Orchestra from the University of Alberta. Some of these records were sold across Canada.

Nick Mischi retired from playing with orchestras in 1986 but was still active teaching young people, some from as far away as Calgary, Alberta, to play the dulcimer and to carry on the tradition of ethnic Ukrainian music in Western Canada.

On August 30, 1992 Nick Mischi was one of many competitors at the Ukrainian Music festival held at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. First place performance in the master category by the 85 year young Nick Mischi on his dulcimer (cymbaly), an overwhelmed audience of over 400 people gave Nick a standing ovation. The Festival was hosted by Johnny Bohonos of C.F.C.W.'s radio "Ukrainian Hour".

In 1993 Nick Mischi appeared as one of the guest artists in two concerts at the Annual Vegreville Pysanka Festival 1993, and was applauded loudly by the audience. The same year Nick also took part at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village during Ukrainian Day, entertaining audiences.

Nick Mischi was a talented dulcimer musician. He played by ear, keeping alive the unwritten music for dulcimer. Nick passed away in 2006.

John Demjanjuk (born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demianiuk), April 3, 1920 (Dubovi Makharenci, Vinnytska oblast, Ukraine) – March 17, 2012 (Bad Feilnbach, Bavaria, Germany) was a Ukrainian-American auto worker, a former soldier in the Soviet Red Army, and a prisoner of war during the Second World War.
During World War II he was conscripted into the Soviet Red Army, where he was captured as a German prisoner of war.
In 1952 he emigrated from West Germany to the United States and was granted citizenship in 1958. In 1977 an American newspaper “News from Ukraine” published an article and a picture of a forged ID card with Demianiuk photo on it. The article stated that Demianiuk was a trainee in the Trawniki training camp for guards.
In 1986 he was deported to Israel to stand trial for war crimes, after being identified by eleven Holocaust survivors as "Ivan the Terrible," a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp in Nazi occupied Poland. Demianiuk was accused of committing murder and acts of extraordinarily savage violence against camp prisoners during 1942–43. He was convicted of having committed crimes against humanity and sentenced to death there in 1988. The verdict was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1993, based on new evidence that "Ivan the Terrible" was probably another man.
In 2001 Demianiuk was charged again, this time on the grounds that he had, instead, served as a guard named Ivan Demianiuk at the Sobibór and Majdanek camps in Nazi occupied Poland and at the Flossenbürg camp in Germany.
He was convicted in 2011 in Germany for alleged war crimes as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews. Since his conviction was pending appeal at the time of his death, Demianiuk remains innocent under German law, and his earlier conviction is invalidated. According to the Munich state court, Demianiuk does not have a criminal record.

Lupul, Manoly (14 August, 1927 in Willingdon, Alberta - 24 July, 2019 in Calgary). Historian, educator, and community leader. A graduate of the University of Alberta, the University of Minnesota, and Harvard University (PH D, 1963), he taught educational foundations and Canadian educational history at the University of Alberta from 1958. He became a leading figure in the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation and played a major role in the establishment of the Ukrainian-English bilingual program in Alberta schools (1974) and the creation of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS). The Institute's first director (1976–86). He also was prairie regional chairperson and national vice-chairperson of the Canadian Consultative Council on Multiculturalism (1973–9) and a key member and first chairperson (1982–3) of the Ukrainian Community Development Committee.
(Source: Danylo Husar Struk. “Lupul, Manoly.” Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CL%5CU%5CLupulManoly.htm)

Halyna Kild was born on July 17th, 1955, in Ukraine (in the Yunashky village in the Prohrebyshche district of the Vinnytsia region). She is a journalist, editor, translator, and a freelance radio correspondent at Radio Canada International (1992-1998). She came to Canada in 1998. She is a specialist in the field of graphic communications, advertising, and publishing affairs (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, 1999). She worked at the private technology company of Yotta Yotta Inc. which was in charge of globally distributing and transmitting large volumes of email information and security of electronic networks (2000-2002).

From 1992 to 1997, she prepared and recorded around 200 reports and radio interviews for RCI (Radio Canada International) about political and public events, news of Ukrainian studies in Alberta, and innovative approaches in science and agriculture.

In 1994, she covered the visit to Alberta of the former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. She has written over 50 publications in Ukrainian and in English in the North American and Ukrainian press. Among them: an article on the status of women in Canada and Ukraine “Sexual harassment: reality or fiction” (“Modernity”, June 1995).

Many of her articles are devoted to the work of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, where she is currently working as a Communication & Research Assistant.

Translator and editor of the Composers of the Ukrainian Diaspora articles, Lada Hornjatkevyc, is an editor and Ukrainian-English translator. She has a BA with distinction from the University of Alberta in Ukrainian Language and Literature with a Minor in English Literature. She has also worked in media as a television news editor and has many years’ experience producing and hosting radio programs about Ukrainian music.

Michael Nakonechny (Михайло Наконечний, January 20, 1916, Pidlissia village, Zolochiv district, Austro-Hungarian Empire - August 11, 2001, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). Ukrainian community leader and educator. An alumnus of the Theological Academy of Lviv. Before coming to Canada in 1947 Nakonechny lived in Halychyna (Austro-Hungary) and Germany (Regensburg). After coming to Canada, Nakonechny lived in Winnipeg and Edmonton. In Edmonton, he worked as an Alberta Land Surveyor at the Government of Alberta in the Surveys Branch of the Department of Highways.
Michael Nakonechny was a member of the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada executive; a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, treasurer, and a board member of the Ukrainian National Federation branches in Winnipeg and Edmonton; a member of the Ukrainian Liberation Fund Committee [Крайовий комітет Українського визвольного фонду]; a member of the Plast organization (nickname Kalamar) and co-editor of the Plast bulletin in Winnipeg; a librarian, secretary and board member of the Ukrainian National Hall in Edmonton; a secretary and member of control commission of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Canada, Edmonton diocese; a secretary of the Ukrainian Catholic Council; a member of the Ukrainian War Veterans’ Association main board and a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary and board member of its Edmonton branch; the first secretary of the Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta; chairman of the Winnipeg Ukrainian National Association [Український народний союз] District Committee, an execu­tive board member and a secretary of Edmonton UNA District Committee; a secretary and board member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Edmonton branch. He was awarded two St George silver medals and the scrolls of honour by the Canadian Foundation for the Ukrainian Free University (December 1, 1988) and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (November 14, 1987).

Dmytro Kupiak (November 06, 1918, Yabloniwka village, Lviv Region, Halychyna - June 13, 1995, Toronto, Canada) was born in a family of Yuriy and Anna (nee Zdrazhil’).

In 1943, Kupiak graduated from the Institute for Trade in Lviv. In 1943-1945, he was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. He immigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1953, he got Canadian citizenship. The same year, 1953, Kupiak married Stefania Khorkava. In 1955, he and his family moved to Toronto, Ontario. In 1972, he ran for the election as a member of the Conservative Party. At that time, he was charged by the Soviet Union with committing war crimes.

Kupiak was a member of the Ukrainian Professional and Business Club, the Canadian Legion, the Knights of Columbus - Sheptytsky Council, the businessmen’s association “Queens-Tavern” and many others. He was the owner of the “Mayfair Inn” and a tavern in Toronto.

Sources:
“Купяк Дмитро.” Марунчак, Михайло. Біографічний довідник до історії українців Канади. Вінніпеґ: Українська Вільна Академія Наук в Канаді, 1986, p. 362-363.

Kucher, Mykhailo Stanislaw (September 27, 1924, village of Chornokintsi Velyki near Chortkiv, Halychyna - March 31, 2007, Edmonton, Canada) was born to the family of Petro and Maria (Mniendzybrodzka - Мнєндзибродзка [Mendzydrocka???]) Kucher. Arrived in Canada in 1952.

In 1960, he was one of the founders and a secretary of the Edmonton Branch of the Brotherhood of Former Soldiers of the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army (Stanycia Bratstva kolyshnikh voiakiv Pershoi ukrainskoi dyvizii Ukrainskoi natsionalnoi armii v Edmontoni). Later on, he became the head of the Edmonton branch of the organization and held this position for 12 years. He was also the head of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Alberta Provincial Council. Worked as an electrical engineer.

Composer Fedir Akimenko (Yakymenko; b. 1876, Pisky, Ukraine, d. 1945, Paris, France), the older brother of composer Yakiv Stepovy, was recruited by the Imperial Court Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg at age 10. There he studied piano with Mily Balakirev and composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov, graduating from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1900 or 1901. He subsequently taught at the Tbilisi School of Music, in Nice, his native Kharkiv, the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where his pupils included Igor Stravinsky, and during which time he was an active member of the city’s Ukrainian Art and Literary Society. In 1924 he joined the faculty of the Drahomanov Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute in Prague, where he wrote the first Ukrainian textbook on counterpoint, harmony and theory. From 1928 onward he lived in France.

As a composer Akimenko is associated with the Symbolist movement. Although he is regarded primarily as a miniaturist, having composed more than 50 art songs, numerous solo piano pieces and works for chamber ensemble, he also wrote symphonic music, operas and ballets.