Dmytro Mandybur led Ukrainian community

Dmytro Mandybur, who with his wife fled the Communist takeover of Ukraine and arrived in Minneapolis in 1951, went on to become a leader of the city's Ukrainian immigrant community and to help found the Ukrainian Credit Union and nearby community center in northeast Minneapolis.

In addition to his leadership in the community, he worked for 31 years as a heavy equipment repairman for General Mills, retiring in 1989, and was a lifetime member of St. Constantine Ukrainian Catholic Church a few blocks from his home in northeast Minneapolis. He also organized summer camps and other activities for Ukrainian youth.

Mandybur, 85, died July 21 of congestive heart failure in his home.

"He talked to us about Ukrainian history," said Orest Kramarczuk, who attended youth activities as a teenager. He said his parents came from the same Ukraine village, Pidhajci, as the Mandyburs. "He was a real salt-of-the-earth guy, like a lot of the Ukrainians were."

Mandybur also worked to bring together various religious and political factions within the Ukrainian community, said Kramarczuk. He helped run the deli and restaurant his parents started in the 1950s near St. Anthony Main.

Mandybur was part of a group of Ukrainians who bought a rundown city bathhouse and turned it into a community center on NE. Main Street.

"This has been our dream," Mandybur told the Minneapolis Tribune in October 1965, when the building reopened as the Ukrainian-American Home. It had a new kitchen, 400-seat hall and game rooms, and the lobby displayed Ukrainian handicraft items.

When the city bought the building for redevelopment, Mandybur was heavily involved in getting a new Ukrainian-American Community Center built a few blocks away at 301 NE. Main St., said John Derus, a former city and county official.

Mandybur was president of the center for many years and served on its boards and that of the nearby Ukrainian Credit Union, said his son, Bohdan Mandybur, of Minneapolis.

"He was a hard worker, a good organizer and they all seemed to look to him for leadership," his son said.

Bohdan said that when he was young, his father's routine was to stop at the Ukrainian center before and after work to make sure the boiler was working and to pick up phone messages from anyone wanting to rent the hall for weddings or other events. His dad saved food left over from weddings there to give to new Ukrainian immigrants, Mandybur added.

"He was passionate about the Ukrainian community and his family," said his daughter Vera Kolar, of St. Paul. "He devoted his life to make sure the Ukrainian culture, heritage and language were passed on, and that children had a place to meet, and older people [had a place] to gather. He volunteered all his time. He never asked anything in return."

She said her father's lifelong dream was fulfilled in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine became independent. He had hoped to visit his homeland but was unable to, she said.

In addition to his children, Mandybur is survived by his wife, Maria, and two grandchildren. Services have been held.