NORTH PORT, Fla. – Dr. Mary T. Dycio of North Port, Florida, and formerly of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, passed away peacefully on Aug. 2, 2021, at the Sunset Lake Health and Rehabilitation Center in Venice, Florida, just 23 days after her 99th birthday.Dr. Dycio was born in Rybnyky, West Ukraine on July 10, 1922, to Rev. Wasyl and Olena Tanczak. Her birth name was Maria Myroslava Tanczak and she grew up in a Ukrainian Catholic family with her father, the parish priest, her mother and younger brother Myron. She was educated at the University of Lviv in Ukraine, and towards the end of World War II her family fled from Ukraine to Germany, where she began her medical studies and earned her Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees at the University of Erlangen in West Germany in 1949. While she was a student there she met her future husband, George Dycio, and they were married on Oct. 21, 1949.After the young couple immigrated to the United States 1950, Dr. Dycio began her medical career as a resident at the Contagious Disease Hospital in Belleville, New Jersey. She also served as an intern and a resident in Anesthesia at Mercy Hospital in Canton, Ohio, and began her practice in medicine specializing in Anesthesiology as a member of the medical staff at Irvington General Hospital in Irvington, New Jersey.In 1957 she and her husband moved to Lewiston, Maine, and she became a member of the medical staff as an Anesthesiologist at St. Mary’s General Hospital in 1958, now known as St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, and worked there for over forty years. In 1960 she was appointed Chief of the Anesthesia Department, a position she held for over twenty-five years. Dr. Dycio also established the School of Nurse Anesthetists at St. Mary’s General Hospital and was its director for many years. She was also a member of the medical staff at Central Maine Medical Center in the Anesthesia Department for several years prior to her retirement in 1997.During her tenure at St. Mary’s General Hospital, the other doctors, nurses and hospital staff with whom she and her husband George worked had difficulty pronouncing their last name. As such, she and her husband were affectionately referred to as Dr. Mary and Dr. George. Her wide circle of friends and many acquaintances also referred to her as Dr. Mary.After her retirement, Dr. Dycio pursued her love of art again by taking art classes at the University of Maine Lewiston-Auburn College, focusing on watercolors. Some of her beautiful floral scenes were displayed at Rolandeau’s Restaurant in Auburn, Maine, and are displayed in the homes of many of her friends today. She was also an accomplished writer. In 2013 she published her biography My Life’s Journey from Ukraine to Maine, memoirs recounting her experience growing up in Ukraine following the First World War, the inter-war period in Western Ukraine, the Second World War and post-war immigration to the United States.Dr. Dycio was a Fellow of the American College of Anesthesiologists and a Member of the American Medical Association, the Maine Medical Society, the Androscoggin County Medical Society, and the American-Ukrainian Medical Society. She was also a member of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) and was very proud to be a Ukrainian-American. During her lifetime, Dr. Dycio became proficient is seven languages, including Ukrainian, Polish, German and English.She was a parishioner of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, which her father founded, nourished and expanded. She was also a parishioner of the former Saint Cyril and St. Methodius Church and Holy Trinity Church in Lisbon Falls, Maine, and St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in North Port, Florida.Dr. Dycio was predeceased by her brother, Myron, her parents, Rev. Wasyl and Olena Tanczak, her beloved and devoted husband, Dr. George “Doc” Dycio, her second husband, Bohdan Wysocky, and her niece, Maria Cisyk. She is survived by her two sons: George M. Dycio, his wife Cheryl and their daughter Larissa, and Mark R. Dycio, his wife Victoria and their daughter Caroline, as well as several nieces and nephews and their extended families in the United States, Canada and Europe. She also leaves behind her adopted daughter, Zoya Dinev and her husband Dinko, who were her live-in caretakers while she resided at her home in North Port, Florida, for the past five years.A funeral mass for Dr. Dycio will be held at the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and she will be laid to rest next to her husband George at St. Andrew’s Orthodox Cemetery in Bound Brook, New Jersey. A memorial service will also be held at Holy Trinity Church in Lisbon Falls, Maine at a later date.The Dycio family would like to thank the entire staff at the Sunset Lake Health and Rehabilitation Center for the personal care they provided and the compassion they showed for Dr. Dycio while she was a patient at their facility.

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