John Werbianskyj

John J. Werbianskyj
June 24th, 1935 - November 26th, 2022

Elkhart, Indiana – John J. Werbianskyj, 87, passed away Saturday, November 26th, 2022 of natural causes, surrounded by his loved ones.

John was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Joseph and Eugene, his former wife Sandra (Barber) Werbianskyj and his children Ned, Roman, Jane and Mark. He is survived by his sisters Maria (Nevin) Houston and Oxana (Dwight Fish) Werbiansky, his children Jon (Cindy) Werbianskyj, Sabrina Mullen, Greg (Karen) Werbianskyj, Tamara (Calvin) Moore, and his wife Priscilla (Higgins) Werbianskyj, her children Cheryl (Higgins) Reed, Doug Higgins and Lori (Higgins) Weldy.

He is also survived by an extended family of grandchildren, great grandchildren, a great great grandchild, and many nieces and nephews.

    He was born in Brody, Ukraine on June 24th, 1935, the second son of Victor and Sophia (Bohdan) Werbiansky. With his family, including grandparents Dymytro and Barbara (Romaniuk) Bohdan, he fled Ukraine in 1944. After a hard year of travel, during which his grandfather Dymtryo was killed in an air raid in Austria, John and his remaining family ended up in a Displaced Person’s camp in Berchtesgaden, Germany, residing in a barracks at Strub Kaserne.

    In 1949, he and his family emigrated to the United States and were sponsored by the George and Rachel Weybright family of New Paris, Indiana.

    John became a naturalized American citizen and served proudly in the United States Army from 1959 until 1965 becoming an Engineer at Fort Hamilton New York. He was deployed to West Germany in 1961 when the Communist regime in East Germany began to build the Berlin Wall.

After his service in the United States Army he worked at Elkhart Bridge and Iron for 31 years and was an AFL-CIO Union Delegate. Later he worked at Gunite Corporation until his retirement in 2001.

John had an immense love for his family. He was an avid bowler and a member of the Moose Lodge. He enjoyed gardening and travel, and his favorite sports team was the Chicago Bears. He dedicated much of his time to his church, St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Mishawaka. He was a kind man, much beloved by all who knew him.

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