It is with great sadness that we announce that Prof. Leonid Rudnytzky passed away in the early hours of December 8, 2024, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Dr. Leonid D. Rudnytzky was a Ukrainian philologist, Germanist, Slavist, Ukrainianist, professor, educator, co-editor of numerous American and Ukrainian encyclopedias, President of the World Council of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Prof. Rudnytzky was born on September 8, 1935, in Lviv, into the family of Ivan Teodor Rudnytzky, a lawyer, officer in the Ukrainian Galician Army, co-creator of the Listopadovy rank (1918) and military attaché of the West Ukraine People’s Republic, and Yulia Rudnytzky (née Luzhnytsky.)

In 1944, during the Second World War, the Rudnytzky family escaped from the oncoming Soviet forces to Germany. The year following his father’s death in 1951, at the age of 16, Leonid moved with his mother to the United States of America and in 1958 he completed his undergraduate studies at La Salle College (now University) in Philadelphia, PA. In 1960, he obtained an MA in German studies at the University of Pennsylvania and, in 1965, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation Ivan Franko and German Literature at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, West Germany.

Prof. Rudnytzky began his multi-decade professorial career teaching at La Salle College in 1959 as a professor of German studies, quickly expanding to Slavic studies and comparative literature. He authored over three hundred scholarly articles and monographs over the course of his prolific career. From 1990 until 1999, he was the co-founder and director of the La Salle University’s Central and Eastern European Studies Program.

While La Salle University served as his academic home throughout his professional career, Prof. Rudnytzky also taught Slavic Languages and Literature at numerous institutions of higher learning including the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Ludwig Maximilian University, the University of Vienna, as well as at various universities in Ukraine.

In 1974 he became part of the original group of faithful gathered by His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Josyf Slipyj when St. Sophia Religious Association of Ukrainian Catholics, USA, was founded and appointed by the Patriarch as the director of the Ukrainian Catholic University affiliate in Philadelphia (Elkins Park). In 1985-1986 and 1989-1990, he was the chairman of the Ivan Franko International Society in the United States. Since 1992 he is President of the World Council of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. From 1996 to 1999 he was the Dean of the Faculty of Philology and from 1998 until 2004 he was Rector of the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany.

From 2004 until 2018, Dr. Rudnytzky served as the 5^th President of St. Sophia Religious Association of Ukrainian Catholics, USA, the organization to which he dedicated more than 50 years of his life. Before him, the Society was headed by Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, Bishop Ivan Khoma, Dr. Romana Nawrotska, and Prof. Albert Kipa.

Prof. Rudnytzky received many awards and recognitions throughout his life. He received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1966. He was awarded the Ivan Franko Literary Prize of the Union of Writers of Ukraine for Research in Franko studies in 1993. He received the Award of the President of Ukraine for his personal contribution to the development of the Ukrainian state in 1996 and the Basilian Humanitarian Award from the Order of the Basilian Sisters in 1997.  He was named Professor emeritus in 1998 at La Salle University and received the Order of Yaroslav the Wise IV degree in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2003. In 2004, he became a Knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta, and in 2005 he received the Pro Universitate Medal of the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany as well as the Diploma of Laureate and Medal of Mykhailo Hrushevsky in Lviv, Ukraine. He has received honorary doctorates from several universities in Europe and the United States. Two weeks before his death, Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak awarded Prof. Rudnytzky and his wife the  Metropolitan’s  2024 Lifetime Service Award for “Lifelong Christian Witness in Marriage, Family, Multifaceted Community Engagement, Education, Scholarship and Lay Ecclesial Ministry and Leadership in the Ukrainian Catholic Church.”

Leonid Rudnytzky was an intellectual who cherished his faith. He played a crucial role in protecting the Underground Church, advocating for its recognition and contributing to the celebration of the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine.

In 1959, while a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, he met the love of his life, Irene (née Ieviņš). The couple married in 1964 and set an example of a harmonious couple that took an active part in the secular movement of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The Rudnytzkys hosted Ukrainian Soviet writers, even when part of the Ukrainian diaspora avoided contacts with Ukrainians from the Soviet Ukraine. This openness contributed to friendships and English translations of some of the most remarkable works of literature. His shared legacy with Irene is intellectual excellence, deep faith and unwavering devotion to the Ukrainian Church and cultural heritage.

His family life was marked by joy, prayer and hospitality. Leonid and Irene raised three children: Kateryna (married to Jim Schray), Larysa (married to John Dragonettii) and Nicholas (married to Christina nee Nimchuk), and celebrated the arrival of ten grandchildren: Alexandra and Dianna Dragonetti; Teresa, Peregrine, Blaise and Simeon Schray; Gregory, Michael, Yuliya and Amelia Rudnytzky. He dearly loved his cousins Chrystyna Kulchycky and Olexander Lushnycky, who preceded him in death, and rejoiced in his closeness with their children:  Dmytro, Danyo, Yaro, Ulita and Andrei. He departed this world grateful for many friends, colleagues and loved ones, knowing that he lived a blessed life.

Leonid Rudnytzky left an invaluable scholarly, spiritual and cultural legacy and generations of successors who continue his work.