George Michael Cehelsky

Yurij (George) Michael Cehelsky passed away on May 31, 2001, on his 95 th year of life in Pennsylvania - one of the renowned community activists in Galicia (Ukraine) and in the Ukrainian immigrant community in the United States. He was the son of a well known Ukrainian politician and community activist, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR), and an active Ukrainian diplomat and publicist - Lonhyn Cehelsky.

Yurij Cehelsky was born on September 6, 1906 in Lviv, Ukraine. He spent his youth mainly in Kaminka Strumylova (today Kamianka Buska) in the home of his grandfather, priest and outstanding clergyman - Rev. Mykhail Cehelsky. He learned the love for the Kaminka region that he clearly portrays in his extensive memorial-historical work "Saga of the Cehelsky family and stories about Kaminka Strumylova", which was first published in the United States in 1992.

During the tumultuous years of the First World War, Yurij Cehelsky attended Ukrainian school in Vienna, which was organized after its evacuation from the Lviv Teachers' Seminary. He returned to Lviv in 1917 and continued his studies at the First State high school Academy, graduating in 1925. He was friends with Yurij Petrushevych, Roman Shukhevych,, Yurij Starosolsky, Julian Redko, Orest Jaciw and others. All of them during their youth developed a strong love for Ukraine and were active in community life, were ardent Plast members, and worked selflessly in the Student section of the "Prosvita" society.

After graduating from high school, Yurij Cehelsky entered the Academy of veterinary medicine in Lviv, graduating in 1933. He worked in different positions in the Ministry of Agriculture of Poland.

In 1938, he married Veronika Drozdowsky, who was a teacher by profession and a singer by way of talent - by the time of the wedding she was already performing professionally - primarily on radio. They had two daughters: Anisia and Olha, both being raised in a patriotic Ukrainian spirit.

Following the turmoil of the Second World War and its aftermath, the Cehelsky family, finally emigrated to the United States in 1949 and settled in Philadelphia, Pensylvania.

Alongside his professional career in the United States, Dr. Yurij Cehelsky was involved in community work amongst the Ukrainian diaspora. He established an affiliate of the Society of Ukrainian Veterinary Doctors in Philadelphia and was its head. He worked with the Ukrainian Credit Union, and was the secretary for the 368th branch of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA). He devoted considereable time and heart to the Ukrainian Plast, with which he was involved from his early years in Ukraine to his senior years in the United States. He was first to reestablish the Ukrainian Plast in the refuffee camp in Landeck (Austria), in Philadelphia he was the head of Plast Branch Council for 8 years, for four years he was the deputy head of the Plast Seniorate, and finally its head. He was a member of the infamous Plast group "Lisovi Chorty" (Forest Devils).