Businessman.
Born at Warren on 16 April 1909, son of Ukrainian immigrants Anton and Dora Smerechanski, at 17 he began a career in the lumber business with the North American Lumber and Supply Company. After nearly 20 years he began his own lumber brokerage business under the name of Sprague Lumber Company, as well as the retail Modern Lumber Company. Sprague became the leading independent wholesale distributer of building materials in Manitoba.
He was a charter member of the Selkirk Rotary Club and was a director of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg from 1965 to 1966. He was a member of the Canadian Radio Television Commission (CRTC), President of the North Winnipeg YMCA, Director of the Metropolitan YMCA, Winnipeg Football Club, Honorary Life Member of the Ukrainian Professional and Businessmen Club of Winnipeg, the North Winnipeg Liberal Association, a Director of the Bank of Western Canada, the Lake Winnipeg Navigation Limited, Chairman of the Industrial Development Board of Winnipeg, founding Chairman of Settlers Savings and Mortgage Corporation, Provincial Chairman of the Manitoba March of Dimes, founder of the Sons of Ukrainian Pioneers Luncheon Club, and an honorary councillor and member of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
In 1936, he married Olga “Sparky” Safianiuk (1909-1990) and they had three children: Patricia Ann Shanski (1938-2005), John David Shanski, and Donald Barry Shanski (1946-2017). He was a member and Chairman of the North Winnipeg Liberal Association and ran federally in a 1954 by-election in the Selkirk constituency and in 1962 as the provincial Liberal candidate for Inkster. He was a member of the Elmhurst Golf and Country Club, Manitoba Club, Carleton Club, Winnipeg Winter Club, Canadian Club of Winnipeg, and the Manitoba Trap and Skeet Club. In 1968, he was given a Manitoba Golden Boy Award and a City of Winnipeg Community Service Award (1968).
He died at Winnipeg on 14 July 1993 and was buried in the Holy Family Cemetery.
“10 Manitobans get Golden Boy Awards,” Winnipeg Free Press, 4 November 1968.
Obituary [Olga Shanski], Winnipeg Free Press, 12 August 1990, page 34.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 16 July 1993, page 40.
Obituary [Patricia Ann Shanski], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 June 2005.
Obituary [Donald Barry Shanski], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 February 2017.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 10 August 2024
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