On 13 July 2025 Alexandra Pavlyshyn, teacher of music and Ukrainian language, interpreter and over many several decades a devoted activist of Plast, the Ukrainian scouting organisation, passed into eternal life, aged 105.
Alexandra’s parents were Anna, née Ivanchuk, and Oleksander Chushak, an officer of the Ukrainian Galician Army who died in 1919 in the struggle for Ukraine’s independence. Alexandra was born in Boryslav, Western Ukraine, after his death. Alexandra received her secondary education at the Ukrainian Institute for Girls in Przemyśl (Peremyshl), where she joined Plast, at the time a prohibited organisation. During the Second World War Alexandra studied in Prague at Charles University and the Ukrainian Free University.
In Germany in 1947 Alexandra married Roman Pavlyshyn, an architect. They came to Australia in 1948 and settled in Brisbane. For many years Alexandra was the accompanist of the choir of the Ukrainian Association of Queensland, a teacher of singing and Ukrainian language at Brisbane’s Lesia Ukrainka Ukrainian School, an educator in Plast and the secretary of the Brisbane Plast Branch. At a senior age she began a career in the Translating and Interpreting Service. In 2017 Alexandra moved to the Kalyna aged care facility in Melbourne.
Sincere condolences to Alexandra’s son, pl. sen. Marko, her daughter in law Olya, grandson st. pl. Damian and family members in Ukraine.
