UCC Mourns Death of Community Leader and RCAF Brigadier General Romanow

Winnipeg, Manitoba - March 21, 2011 - The Ukrainian Canadian Congress offered its sympathies to the family and friends of the late Brigadier General Joseph Romanow.

“Joseph Romanow worked tirelessly for the Ukrainian community since his youth,” stated UCC National President Paul Grod. “For over eighty years, Brigadier General Romanow was a leader of the Ukrainian Canadian community. On behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, I would like to pay our respects to Mr. Romanow and offer our deepest sympathy to the Romanow Family.”  

Born in 1921 and raised in Saskatoon, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) upon graduation from high school in 1940. He served Canada admirably in the Second World War in Europe and Asia.  After the War, he left the military, completed his education, and re-joined as an officer. Completing National Defence College, Joseph Romanow became the first Canadian of Ukrainian descent to be promoted to the rank of General in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Following the Second World War, Joseph Romanow learned that many Ukrainians in the displaced persons camps of Europe were being forcibly repatriated to Soviet concentration camps in Siberia and other remote areas.  To help prevent this, Joseph Romanow and other Ukrainian-Canadian servicemen formed CURB: Canadian Ukrainian Relief Bureau.  Supported by the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (now the Ukrainian Canadian Congress), they came to the aid of these displaced persons and sought to ease their immigration to Canada. The work of Joseph Romanow and other Ukrainian-Canadian servicemen saved the lives of many thousands of Ukrainians.

Joseph Romanow was an active member of Ottawa’s St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine and church choir.

May his Memory be Eternal - Вічна Йому Пам’ять!