Professor Omeljan Pritsak Deceased

[Tymish Holowinsky]

Omeljan Pritsak
7 April 1919 – 29 May 2006

The Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute announces with deep regret the 
passing of Omeljan Pritsak, Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian 
History, Emeritus, on 29 May 2006.  For many years, he was an 
internationally recognized scholar in historical and comparative Turkic and 
Altaic linguistics, and a leading authority on Steppe history and culture.  
>From the 1960s on, Professor Pritsak turned his attention increasingly to 
the research and analysis of Ukrainian history in context, drawing on his 
impressive linguistic talents in Central and East Asian languages to flesh 
out that history with material previously underrepresented or unknown. 
  
He joined the Harvard faculty in 1964 as Professor of Linguistics and 
Turkology, but continued to pursue his interests in Ukrainian studies.  In 
1967 he led a drive, together with the Ukrainian Studies Fund, to raise 
money among the Ukrainian diaspora community in support of three endowed 
chairs (history, literature, philology) and an institute to create a firm 
foundation for the development of Ukrainian studies in the West.  Together 
with Professor Ihor Sevcenko he initiated the weekly Seminar in Ukrainian 
Studies in 1970.  The Ukrainian Research Institute came into being in 1973 
with Professor Pritsak as its first director.  In 1975 he was given the 
Hrushevsky Chair in Ukrainian history and in 1977 he helped to launch the 
journal Harvard Ukrainian Studies. He was instrumental in building up the 
Ukrainian library collections at Harvard and in developing new series of 
publications that made primary texts, facsimile editions, and translations 
of important works of the Ukrainian past available to scholars worldwide.

Through his inspired teaching and energetic example, Professor Pritsak 
helped to train and influence many generations of students, who have gone 
on to fill important academic positions in the Ukrainian field in the 
United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. A scholar of enormous erudition, 
Professor Pritsak produced a bibliography of over 500 entries.  

When he retired in 1989, he became increasingly involved in the revival of 
academic studies in Ukraine itself.  He was elected the first foreign 
member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.  He revived the Institute of 
Oriental Studies in Kyiv, introducing new programs in that field and many 
neglected areas of historical scholarship.

Professor Pritsak is survived by his wife Larysa Hvozdyk-Pritsak, a 
daughter Irene Pritsak, and two grandchildren.  

Information concerning funeral services for Professor Pritsak can be found 
on the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute's website at 
www.huri.harvard.edu.

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