Chumer, Vasyl

Chumer, Vasyl [Чумер, Василь; Čumer, Vasyl'; aka Czumer, William], b 5 February 1882 in Drohoiv, Peremyshl county, Galicia, d 2 August 1963 in Edmonton. Chumer was a pioneer schoolteacher who arrived in Winnipeg in 1903 and became a member of the first class to enroll in the Ruthenian Training School in 1905. He taught in Manitoba and Alberta (1907–13) and was an organizer and first secretary-treasurer of the Ukrainian Pioneers' Association of Alberta. He is the author of one of the first historical accounts of the Ukrainian settlers in Canada, Spomyny pro perezhyvannia pershykh ukraïns'kykh pereselentsiv v Kanadi (Recollections about the Experiences of the First Ukrainian Settlers in Canada, 1942), which was published in English translation as Recollections about the Life of the First Ukrainian Settlers in Canada (1981).

[This article was updated in 2010.]