Alexander A. Granovsky papers

Alexander A. Granovsky (full name: Neprytsky-Hranovsky), a Ukrainian American entomologist, also an activist and poet was born November 4, 1887 in Berzhtsi, Kremianets county, Volhynia gubernia. Granovsky studied at the Kiev Commercial Institute (1909-10) before emigrating to the United States in 1913 at age 26. He served in France during WWI with the United States Army and remained there after the war’s end to study at the Sorbonne. Upon returning to the United States, he continued his studies at Colorado State Agricultural College (B.A., 1918) and the University of Wisconsin earning an M.A. (1929) and Ph.D. (1930). He joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1930 as assistant professor and then as professor (1940) in the Department of Entomology and Economic Zoology, retiring in 1956. Granovsky is best known for his pioneering work in chemical control of insects, and as an early advocate for chemical dusting of forests to contain insect infestations, the use of DDT on potato bugs, and white grub and cutworm controls. He wrote numerous scientific articles and was a worldwide authority on the biology and taxonomy of the Aphididae, two species of which were named after him: Calaphis granovskyi and Drephanaphis granovskyi.While studying and later teaching (1922-1930) at the University of Wisconsin, Granovsky met and married Irene Violet Thorpe; they were married on August 7, 1928 in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Irene Granovsky was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, Dagmar (Sandra), Philip, Robert, Natalie, and Theodore (Ted). Throughout his life Granovsky was involved in political activities concerning Ukrainian political autonomy. He became a leader in the Ukrainian American community locally and nationally and was president (1935-1963) of the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine. Granovsky was a full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the USA, and member of the senate of the Organization for Ukrainian Nationalists. He was a founding member of and held various positions (from 1944) in the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. Granovsky authored many political essays and books, including Ukraine’s Case for Independence (1940), Vil’na Ukraina neobkhidna dlia postiinoho myru (A Free Ukraine Is Necessary for a Lasting Peace, 1945). He was personally involved with diplomatic efforts to bring 5000 Ukrainians in German and Austrian displaced persons camps to the United States at the end of WWII. Of these, Granovsky helped resettle more than 100 Ukrainian refugees to Minnesota (mainly in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area). Granovsky was also a poet. His modernist poetry first appeared in the Kyiv (Kiev) journals Ukrains’ka Khata (Ukrainian Home) and Ridnyi krai (Native Country). He wrote seven collections of poetry (1910-14, 1953-64). After Ukraine became independent in 1991, a selection of his unpublished poems were published in Kyiv in 1995 under the title Zoloti Vorota (Golden Gates). Alexander Granovsky died in St. Paul, Minnesota, November 4, 1976.