Paliiv, Kekyliia

Paliiv, Kekyliia [Паліїв, Кекилія; Palijiv, Kekylija; nickname: Цьопа; Tsiopa], b 6 January 1906 in Perevozets, Kalush county, Galicia, d 11 November 1969 in Toronto. Educator and civic leader; sister of Dmytro Paliiv. A leading organizer of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Association in Galicia, she served on its national executive (1926–30) and, after its dissolution by the Polish authorities, worked with the Vohni co-operative publishing house and the Commission for Youth Camps and Excursions, which carried on Plast’s work. In 1942–4 she served as youth secretary on the Ukrainian Central Committee and chief organizer of Ukrainian Youth Educational Societies (VSUM). After the Second World War she was commandant of Plast girls’ units in Germany (1947–9), chief of the Plast movement in Great Britain (1949–52), and head of the national executive of Plast in Canada (1953–9, 1962–5). She was president of the Ukrainian Teachers' Federation of Canada (1965–9), a founder and vice-president of the Ukrainian Educational Council of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (1967–9), and the initiator of the patrons’ network of the émigré Entsyklopediia ukraïnoznavstva (Encyclopedia of Ukraine) that was being prepared by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Sarcelles, France.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]