Honouring their Ukrainian roots

On March 28, 2024, alumni Dr. Cornel and Mrs. Anne Filipchuk established the Cornel and Anne Filipchuk Ukrainian Folklore Archives Endowment, creating an invaluable opportunity to preserve Ukrainian Canadian history and culture for future generations.

Although they grew up on farms 50 km apart, Dr. Cornel Filipchuk and his future wife Anne met at the University of Alberta. In 1958, both were students in professional programs — dentistry for Cornel and education for Anne — and lived at St. john's Institute, a residence for rural Alberta students of Ukrainian heritage.

“I felt like I’d won the lotto,” says Cornel of meeting Anne. 

Besides their romantic chemistry, the two had much in common. Both of their early lives were spent in northeastern Alberta, on farms without electricity or telephone access (other than the shared telephone in their local post offices). Much of the work was done with the help of horses.

Farm chores were a fact of life for everyone in the family, says Anne. “Each morning, I had to milk six cows, go to school, come back and milk the cows again,” she says. “Feed the pigs. Bring wood into the house. If I was lucky, I could go to town and pick up ice cream for a nickel.”

On top of this, Cornel and Anne were both children of Ukrainian immigrants who had come to Alberta in search of a new life. Both grew up speaking Ukrainian and were immersed in the culture until leaving for university.

But even after arriving at the U of A, the pair remained deeply connected to their culture. They joined a social club for Ukrainian students and, after marrying in 1960, they took part in cultural activities with their growing family. “We took them to Ukrainian school, to dancing, to choir — whatever was happening in the community,” says Anne, who volunteered frequently along with her husband. 

At the same time, Cornel was a practicing dentist but discovered that he wanted more knowledge of prosthodontics — the creation of dental prosthetics like crowns and bridges. In the late 1960s, Cornel, Anne and their four young children, aged 1-9 years moved to the United States for two years where Cornel received his Specialty Certificate in Prosthodontics and a master’s degree. Upon the family’s return, Cornel became a faculty member at the U of A Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry before he opened a prosthodontic clinic where he practiced for 47 years, with Anne working in the practice for the final 25 years.

In retirement, the couple has remained connected to their Ukrainian roots, attending cultural events and visiting Ukraine before the war. Cornel even restored the one-room farmhouse his family lived in for their first few years in Canada. 

However, they worried that the history of Ukrainians in Alberta was fading with time, the couple felt a deep responsibility to act.

They learned about the Faculty of Arts’ Kule Folklore Centre (KuFC) after meeting Drs. Peter and Doris Kule — the philanthropists who made the centre possible — at a cultural event. Recognizing the Centre as an optimal platform to safeguard Ukrainian heritage in the province, the Filipchuks generously established the Cornel and Anne Filipchuk Ukrainian Folklore Archives Endowment earlier this spring.

For Cornel, the endowment not only fulfills the couple’s shared dream of preserving Ukrainian history and culture in Alberta but also pays tribute to their family roots.

“We both felt a need to honour and pay gratitude to our parents and the generation of pioneers that preceded them,” he says. “It’s thanks to their sacrifices that we and our children can enjoy the incredible life we have today.”