Natalia I. Pazuniak

DR. NATALIA ISHCHUK PAZUNIAK

Passed away on October 12, 2017, peacefully at home, from complications arising from a heart attack and stroke.

Natalia was born February 24, 1922 in Kiev, Ukraine. At one year of age, the Bolsheviks forced her family to move to Western Ukraine, ultimately settling in Rivne. Natalia learned French from her mother, who was a high school mathematics teacher, German from a nanny, and Polish while attending secondary school.

Natalia obtained her secondary school diploma and enrolled in Lviv University, when, in 1941, Hitler invaded and occupied Western Ukraine. Her German fluency led her to become an interpreter between the German authorities and the local population in Lviv and Rivne. These positions enabled Natalia to collect and forward information to partisans and the Jewish community. At great personal peril, Natalia helped her father, Roman Ischuck, in sheltering Jews from the Nazis, who was later recognized by the Princeton Raul Wallenberg Center. With the Red Army advancing, and fearing the worst, Natalia and her family became refugees, trekked largely by foot through Hungary, Czechia and Austria, eventually reaching Germany, where she survived the Allied bombings of Dresden. While living in a post-war displaced persons camp, Natalia continued her education and earned a college degree in Germany in 1949. That same year a family member from Chester, PA sponsored the immigration to the U.S. of Natalia's family, which settled in Philadelphia.

In 1951, Natalia married Roman Pazuniak, and continued her education, obtaining a Masters and then a PhD in Slavic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1956. Natalia taught Russian to the U.S. Army and at Villanova University, and Ukrainian literature and language at Manor College, the University of Pennsylvania and Macquarie University in Australia.

Natalia was also very active in many women's and Ukrainian organizations, travelling to conferences worldwide, and in the Ukrainian community, particularly educational and charitable institutions, to her last days.

She is survived by her sons, George (and wife Maria) and Bohdan (and wife Sophia), and niece Dora Vynnytsky, and her grandsons, Maksym, Andriy (and wife Zahra), Roman (and wife Natasha), Markian and Orest, and great-grandson, Tariq, as well as many other family members and friends around the world.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a viewing at 9 AM, followed by Requiem Liturgy at 10 AM, at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church, on Friday, October 20.

Natalia will be interned next to her beloved sister and parents at St Andrews Cemetery, South Bound Brook, NJ.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, Inc., 1206 Cottman Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111 (www.uuarc.org), with whom Natalia worked until her last days.
 

Service

Friday, October 20, 2017
10:00 AM

Visitation

1623 W. Cayuga St.
Philadelphia, PA 19140
Friday, October 20, 2017
9:00 AM-10:00 AM

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