Walter Shymansky Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Walter Shymansky, age 90, has left us to be with his loving wife Mary who died May 31, 2017. He was the son of Very Reverend Walter, later Bishop Peter, and Matushka Emily Shymansky. He was born in Cohoes, New York and that is where he met his wife Mary. They were married in Cohoes on August 13, 1966 and their life together of 51 years was, in Walter’s own words, ”one that everyone should wish for.” He leaves behind a younger brother Russell, nieces Arlene (Richard) DeWitt, Donna (Roger) Moyer and nephews William and Gary Rusen. In 1946 when Walter graduated from Olyphant High School in Olyphant, Pennsylvania he enlisted in the United States Air Force. He became a Control Tower Operator, serving in the Pacific, primarily in Guam. After his honorable discharge from the Air Force he entered East Stroudsburg State Teacher’s College, taking advantage of the GI bill. He graduated in three years with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. He immediately entered Pennsylvania State University and earned a Master’s degree in School Administration and Guidance. Walter began teaching Biology in New Jersey. He felt fortunate that he taught for the final twenty-six years of his career at Teaneck High School, as it was ranked one of the finest high schools in the state. A gifted teacher who took a special interest in his students, one of Walter’s students wrote him upon his retirement, “Mr. Shymansky, you taught us Biology, but you also taught us so much more. Thank you.” His wife, Mary, saved that note and Walter was very touched by it when he found it many decades later. Walter and Mary lived in Wayne, New Jersey for nineteen years before moving back to Cohoes. At the urging of his good friend, Rev. John Skvir, Walter attended St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary, Yonkers, New York, where he enrolled in evening classes for music, adapting music and conducting. This allowed him to serve various Orthodox parishes in northern New Jersey and southern New York. He was also a member of the Cappella Russian Male Chorus for twenty-nine years and served as its conductor for the last ten of those years. Upon retirement Walter and Mary returned to Cohoes, where Walter was asked, by the local clergy, to gather together singers for the St. Andrews Brotherhood Choir. He did so and the choir sang at all Sunday Evening Lenten Services for many years. He also served St. Nicholas church in Cohoes, St. Basil’s in Watervliet, and Saint Nicholas in Pittsfield, Mass. Beginning when he was in New Jersey, Walter gathered music and eventually filled eight filing cabinets. Mary always asked him what he was going to do with all that music. One day in 2002, Protodeacon Stephen Howanetz of Olyphant, Pennsylvania called and asked him to help adapt the Liturgical music of the Orthodox Church in America. The website www.Podoben.org contains the works they created. Ronald Geleta was also asked and became a member of Podoben. It is a website today used by many in the United States, Europe and Australia. Because of his work with the liturgical music of the church, Walter was one of the first to be awarded The Order of St. Romanos, presented by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America. The collection of his adapted music gained a new life because of technology. Through telephone calls, letters and the Internet Walter became an incomparable source of information on Orthodox liturgies. If he did not know the answer to a question he found someone who did. He also found time to teach at St. Tikhon’s Theological Seminary, in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. Visitation hours for Walter will be at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, 67 Saratoga Street, in Cohoes, New York from 5 to 7 PM on Friday, April 5, 2019. At 7 PM a Requiem service will be celebrated by Archbishop Michael Dahulich. On Saturday, April 6, 2019 his Funeral service will be served at 9:30 AM. Burial will be next to his loving wife at St. Nicholas Cemetery,

Walter Shymansky

July 29, 1928 - March 31, 2019