Volodymyr Uzdejczyk was born on February 19, 1925 in Jankowce, in the Lesko district, in Lemkivshchyna. His parents were Ivan Uzdejczyk (1892-1985) and Katerina (from the Adamiak family, 1982-1979). The family had seven children and Volodymyr was one of twins. He went to primary school in Lesko starting from 1932. In 1939, he was supposed to go to high school, but the Bolsheviks closed it. In 1941, the Germans came and took Volodymyr, who was only 16 years old, to Germany. A year later, they took his twin brother, whom he was able to see only 25 years later. After doing hard labor in Westphalia until 1943, he fled to Bavaria, but was caught and survived two months in a concentration camp. For the next six years, he worked at an ammunition factory.

From the end of war until 1950, he was in six displaced persons camps. There, he started studying ballet and, after three years, his ballet master (a former Imperial Colonel) prepared the group to journey to the United States, but this did not happen. He then attended the ballet school of Mrs. Godlovskaya in Munich and, in 1950, immigrated to United States through his friend’s invitation.

In 1952, Volodymyr married Mary Doruszincova (born in 1938), who bore him a son named Roman in 1957 and daughters Daria (1960) and Oksana (1966).

On arrival to America, Volodymyr, first, worked hard in a hotel kitchen, washing dishes; then in several machine factories in New Jersey and Mount Vernon; and then, from 1965, at the Precision Valve Corporation, from where he retired after 25 long years.

Since 1965, Volodymyr Uzdejczyk has been one of the most active members of the 2nd branch of OOL in Yonkers, as well as in many other Ukrainian organizations. For over 25 years, he taught Ukrainian dance, as a volunteer, to children at the Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM) and Ukrainian Seminary in Stamford. He is also a long-time patron and fan of the Ukrainian soccer team “Krylati” in Yonkers.