Frolick, Stanley

Frolick, Stanley William [Фроляк, Святослав Василь; Froljak, Svjatoslav Vasyl'], b 7 July 1920 in Hillcrest, Alberta, d 4 June 1988 in Toronto, Ontario. Military officer, lawyer, community leader and organizer, politician. Born into the family of Ukrainian pioneers, Frolick was sent by his parents to complete his secondary education (1932–9) in Stanyslaviv in Polish-controlled Western Ukraine. Following the Soviet occupation of Galicia in 1939, he attended the Lviv Zootechnical-Veterinary Institute in 1940–1. As a British subject, Frolick was able to leave the Soviet Union in 1941 traveling across Siberia by train to Japan and by ship to Canada. He enrolled in the University of Toronto but in 1943 began to work for the Canadian federal government as a censor. In 1943 he became national president of the Ukrainian National Youth Federation of Canada (MUNO). He enlisted in the British Army in 1943 and in 1945–6, he served with the Allied Control Commission for Germany. He resigned his commission as captain in the British Army and while in England, he helped to found the Central Ukrainian Relief Bureau (1945–7) and was an active member of the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen's Association. Through these organizations, Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons received information and assistance that enabled many to immigrate and settle in North America.

Having returned to Canada, Frolick was one of the founders of the newspaper Homin Ukraïny and the Canadian League for Ukraine's Liberation. He also became an active member of the Progressive Conservative Party and stood as an unsuccessful candidate in the 1953 and 1962 federal elections and 1963 provincial elections in Ontario. He completed his legal studies at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1958. Frolick established a successful career as a lawyer and continued to be active as a Ukrainian community leader in Toronto. He was appointed Queen’s Council in 1968. He held executive positions in several national Ukrainian organizations including the Ukrainian Professional and Business Federation (1971–3) and the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies (1975–6). He was also one of the initiators of the founding of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. In 1976, he was elected to the Ontario provincial executive of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (now Congress) and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Liquor Licence Board of Ontario in 1978 and to the Social Assistance Review Board in 1984.

Myron Momryk

[This article was updated in 2023.]