After months of planning and negotiations, an entry about a long-time Kosciuszko Heritage collaborator and supporter has been added to the Obituaries section of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
The entry is that of John Hospodaryk (1952 – 2012), a teacher, author, musician and singer-songwriter.
John had a close association with Kosciuszko Heritage, taking part in various Kosciuszko Festivals held in the Snowy Mountains and composing texts about Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki.
As the entry notes: “John composed and performed The General’s Song, (about Thaddeus Kosciuszko), Across the Snowy (about Strzelecki), Adyna (about Strzelecki’s fiancée), My Mountain Kosciuszko (lyrics by U. Lang), High Country Stream and Kosciuszko Paper Daisy. The audiences loved his songs and the fact that many of them were inspired by the Snowy Mountains.”
John was admired and deeply loved by his family, colleagues, friends and students.
“He was an extremely modest man who rarely spoke of his own achievements but he was never afraid to speak his mind about the things that angered him: injustice, tyranny, oppression, exploitation and discrimination,” the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry records.
“He was proud of his Polish heritage and of the egalitarian traditions of Australia. He wanted a world that would be guided by compassion and fairness rather than by fear and greed.”
John, Anna and Victoria Hospodaryk on Mt Kosciuszko, April 18th, 2008. Photo by Mark Kamma, courtesy of Puls Polonii 
The entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography