Taras Dijak

Taras Dijak, 61, of Maine, passed away surrounded by his family on November 26, 2022. Loving husband of Jeanette, nee Touzett and the late Maike, nee Hohman. Dear son of Larissa, nee Melnychenko, and the late Walter. Cherished brother of William (Nicole), Andrew and Lesia (Stefko) Kuropas. Adored uncle of Alex, Roman, Michael, Cameron, Mariana and Andrew. He loved his family very much. A visitation will be held on Tuesday, November 29th from 4-8pm with a Panachyda at 6pm. A funeral mass will be held on Wednesday, November 30th at 10am at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church, 116 E Illinois Ave, Palatine, IL 60067. Interment private.
Taras Dijak was born January 15th 1961 in Stoughton, Massachusetts. He died of a short illness. He was an active member of ODUM and St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Youth Group in Boston. He was a first generation American. Taras was also a member of Ukrainian National Association UNA earning an partial scholarship for his studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Lowell in Massachusetts in 1979. He then went on to earn his Masters in Biomedical Engineering at the Hartford Graduate Center in Connecticut in 1987. He worked for both the Veterans Affairs Hospital and the FDA laboratory in Massachusetts. In 1989 married the late Maike nee Hohman.
In 1999 Taras worked as an Occupational Health Specialist, Public Sector Compliance Officer in the Maine Dept. of Labor SafetyWorks. For over twenty eight years, Taras has assisted in making Maine businesses and their employees more knowledgeable and aware of health and safety exposure risks through the SafetyWorks! Consultation program. As an Occupational Health Specialist at the Maine Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Standards, he provided both public and private sector workplaces with required OSHA outreach training. In addition, he provided Maine employers the engineering and administrative control strategies required to reduce employee risks from a wide variety of occupational exposure risks such as inorganic lead, crystalline silica and isocyanate compounds. Taras also had the public-sector enforcement industrial hygiene position within the Bureau of Labor Standards.
In 2006 he met Jeanette in Peru and since then, he continued to have curiosity and love for the history and culture of this country.
He recently and happily retired in 2022.
Taras loved nature and simple pleasures like a good campfire, the smell of flowers, contemplate the foliage, picking berries and eating them, the rumor of the sea, spiritual connection with Dalai Lama, the weather, rocks, the space station, and worried about global warming as how it would effect the people he loved.
He had a capacity to love everyone, his kindness, his soft voice, good will and loyal friendship makes him a very special person for everyone who knew him. He was so generous with his spirit.