Peter Jacyk

"If I’ll do the right thing, nobody would remember it, but if I’ll do wrong, then nobody would forget it". It is the favorite quote of a prominent Canadian entrepreneur of Ukrainian descent, patron and philanthropist, known for his significant contribution to the financing of Ukrainian studies in the West and in Ukraine Peter Jacyk. Today, on the day of his memory, I would like to remind everyone that he was a brilliant man.

Petr Jacyk was born on the 7th of July, 1921 in the village Verkhnye Sinowidne, Skolyshchyna.

The boy's father - Dmitry - was a wealthy peasant, and Peter was the firstborn in the family. The boy soon became half-willed: his father died when he was only 14 years old. Peter became a senior and took care about mother, two sisters and four brothers. Despite this, he gave much effort to education - he graduated from a village school, studied on agricultural and railway courses. After graduating, he worked as an assistant engineer. During the war he cooperated with the Ukrainian partisans.

In 1944, Petr Jacyk lived in Germany. There he graduated from the Ukrainian Technical and Economic Institute in Regensburg, became the economist. Later, Jacyk moved to Canada. With $ 7 in his pocket, without friends, ties and assistance, he surprisingly quickly founded his own construction company Prombank Investment Limited (P. Jacyk Group). He was a businessman-phenomenon who became a multimillionaire due to his intelligence, abilities and talents.

Rich man, who could spend money on standard things for such people - yachts, planes, cars, acted quite differently. Peter Jacyk was a sincere, modest, kind and devoted man. He always remembered his roots and supported Ukraine wherever he was. Yevhen Chykalenko said about Jacyk that he: "loved Ukraine not only to the depths of the soul, but to the depths of his own pockets".

First donation of $ 1,000 was made by Petro Jacyk in the early 60's, and the last - shortly before his death. He spent millions of dollars on the popularization of the Ukrainian culture on the world.

Petro Jacyk was one of the sponsors of the Institute of Ukrainian Studies at Harvard University (USA), the Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies, the Center for the Study of the History of Ukraine at the University of Alberta (Canada), Educational Foundation named after. Petr Jacyk (its fund amounts to $ 4 million), a Ukrainian lecture at the School of Slavic Studies and East European Studies at the University of London, a documentation center at the library named after. John P. Roberts at Toronto University, Jacyk Foundation at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) in Edmonton.

Jacyk helped to open the Ukrainian Department of Medicine at the Institute of Harriman at Columbia University, gave for these 750 thousand dollars. A lot of scientific monographs on the history of Ukraine (for example, the translation of the History of Ukraine-Rus by Mykhaylo Hrushevsky into English), economics, political science, medicine, and ethnography were published with his help. The amount of his donations to Ukrainian institutions in the western world exceeds $ 16 million.

In addition, Petro Jacyk helped Ukrainian students to enter universities in Europe, the United States and Canada. And yet - he founded the internationally known Ukrainian language contest, the number of participants of which in recent years reached 5 million people from more than 20 countries of the world.

If you want to learn more about this extraordinary man, you should read the book by Mykhailo Slazobshpitsky "A Ukrainian who refused to be poor".

Petro Jacyk wished Ukraine prosperity. He spent a lot of money to consolidate the image of Ukraine in the world and it would seem he could help anyone who deserved it. His sincere soul, unimaginable deeds and sacrifices are what we all must remember. Eternal memory.