Toronto-based librarian and bibliographer Andrew Gregorovich, a former member of Canada Post’s Stamp Advisory Committee, has died following a brief illness at age 87.
“Andrew was a revered pillar of the Ukrainian Canadian community for decades. His prolific contributions and accomplishments are impossible to capture in their entirety,” reads his Globe & Mail obituary. His parents Alexander and Mary Gregorovich came to Canada in 1899 from Pokuttia-Bukovina in present-day southwestern Ukraine. His father founded the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada, which he also served as its first national president.
In addition to the Stamp Advisory Committee, to which he was appointed in the 1980s, Gregorovich earned the title of librarian emeritus from the University of Toronto, where he worked as a department head for 30 years. Throughout his life, he also served as a board member of the “U of T” Governing Council, chair of the Toronto Historical Board, president of the Ontario Library Association and president of the Canadian Multilingual Press Federation. For many years, he was the executive director of the Ukrainian Canadian Research & Documentation Centre and the president of Toronto’s Taras Shevchenko Museum, which holds a vast collection of Ukrainian-related stamps and postal history. For his various roles, Gregorovich received the City of Toronto Medal, the Shevchenko Medal from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress plus another award from the Ukrainian government