Dzus, William

Dzus, William [Джус, Володимир; Džus, Volodymyr], b 5 January 1895 in Chernykhivtsi, Zbarazh county, Galicia, d 19 June 1964 in West Islip, Long Island, New York State, USA. Industrialist, inventor, philanthropist. Dzus arrived in the United States of America in 1913 and settled in New York. He worked as a lathe operator, and then opened an auto-repair shop in West Islip. After patenting a number of mechanical inventions for cars and planes, he invented in 1932 a fastener screw that did not become loose under vibration. The screw was widely adopted, and by 1943 Dzus employed 600 workers in the Dzus Fastener Company. After the Second World War his inventions were used by truck, bus, boat, electrical-appliance, and rocket manufacturers, and even by orthopedic surgeons. In 1948 Dzus founded the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York and became its president. In 1955 he purchased the residence of Augustus Van Horn Stuyvesant, Jr for the institute.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]