A compact portrait
Dr. Roman Joseph Oleynik moved through three worlds with a single steady compass: medicine, service, and community. Born on 14 August 1936 in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, he became a physician whose career threaded navy decks, hospital corridors, and parish halls. He died on 10 March 2003, leaving behind a family whose public face — in particular his daughter Larisa — carried parts of his story into film and television. This article sketches the man in dates and duties, then steps outward to the family orbit he helped shape.
Basic facts
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Roman Joseph Oleynik |
| Birth | 14 Aug 1936, Charleroi, Pennsylvania |
| Death | 10 Mar 2003 |
| Education | University of Pittsburgh (undergraduate); Temple University School of Medicine (MD); Anesthesiology residency completed at Stanford University Medical Center (residency completed 1972) |
| Military service | U.S. Navy physician, Commander (active duty 1964–1969; three sea tours as Chief Medical Officer aboard the US Oxford) |
| Profession | Anesthesiologist (retired) |
| Residence | Long-time resident of Los Altos, California (28 years noted) |
| Community roles | Director of Choir, Nativity of the Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church (Menlo Park) |
| Languages | Fluent in Russian |
| Spouse | Lorraine (née Allen) |
| Children | Larisa Romanovna Oleynik (b. 7 Jun 1981) and other family members noted in public records |
Timeline: key dates and numbers
| Year / Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1936-08-14 | Birth in Charleroi, Pennsylvania |
| 1964–1969 | Active service as a U.S. Navy physician; attained rank of Commander |
| ~1972 | Completed anesthesiology residency at Stanford University Medical Center |
| 1981-06-07 | Birth of daughter Larisa Romanovna Oleynik |
| ~1975–2003 | Practiced medicine and lived in California; 28-year residency in Los Altos recorded |
| 2003-03-10 | Death |
Medicine and maritime life: career highlights
Medicine for Dr. Oleynik was both craft and calling. Trained at Temple University School of Medicine and refined at Stanford, he specialized in anesthesiology — a discipline that demands precision, calm, and a careful hand. Those qualities translated neatly to his navy service between 1964 and 1969, where he rose to the rank of Commander and completed three sea tours as Chief Medical Officer aboard the US Oxford. Warships are small hospitals adrift; a physician there must function as diagnostician, surgeon, psychiatrist, and sometimes priest of morale. It was a job that reinforced discipline and broadened perspective.
After his sea duty he continued to serve in medical research and clinical practice. He participated in sleep research connected to the Space Program during an assignment in Warminster, Pennsylvania — a detail that places him inside the technical currents of Cold War-era science and the early human physiology work that supported human spaceflight. Later he settled in California and practiced as an anesthesiologist until retirement. The numbers—years of service, the ranks, the residency completion date—anchor a life of steady professional progression.
Family in focus: personal relationships and public traces
Family was central. Roman married Lorraine; public records and family notices list her as his spouse and identify Larisa as their daughter. Larisa Romanovna Oleynik, born 7 June 1981, grew into a public figure as an actress — a career that would keep the family name visible in entertainment circles. She is widely known for roles in both television and film and for having begun a career as a child actor. The father’s medical career and the mother’s nursing background combined into a household with a strong foundation in caregiving professions.
Beyond spouse and child, the public record notes Roman’s parents and siblings. His father, referred to as Very Reverend Joseph Oleynik, indicates a family with ecclesiastical ties that help explain Roman’s later involvement in church music. Siblings and extended relatives appear in genealogical traces, and names such as Claudia are recorded among survivors; these entries suggest a broader family network, some of whose members continued religious and community vocations.
Family table: immediate members
| Relation | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spouse | Lorraine Oleynik (née Allen) | Identified as wife |
| Daughter | Larisa Romanovna Oleynik | Born 7 Jun 1981; actress |
| Parents | Joseph Oleynik; Anna (Matuschka) Oleynik | Father was a Very Reverend |
| Siblings | Claudia (sister) and others | Named in family notices and genealogical records |
Community, choir, and the sound of memory
A striking aspect of Roman’s life is the cultural and spiritual one: he served as Director of Choir at the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church in Menlo Park. Music in liturgy is not background; it is architecture for prayer. In that role he shaped the sonic life of a congregation, teaching, leading, and preserving language and ritual through song. He was also fluent in Russian, a skill that reinforced cultural continuity for a community whose memory often travels across oceans.
The metaphor of music fits neatly with other facets of his life. The anesthesiologist’s work is rhythm — heartbeat monitoring, breath cycles, a steady tempo of care. The navy officer’s life is also rhythm — watches, rotations, the pulse of a ship. Choir directing, medicine, and naval duty: three different metronomes but the same requirement for exactness and empathy.
Public persona and privacy: what the record shows — and what it does not
The public footprint is precise in some places and silent in others. Dates, ranks, and professional milestones are available; specific financial details are not. There are obituary listings, family notices, and public biographies that supply the scaffolding of a life. What remains private are the finer interiorities: the quotidian conversations, the jokes at the dinner table, the private challenges and triumphs that never make it into public notices. Those are absent by design in public records, which present a distilled, official version of a life.
Children and career echoes: Larisa’s path
Larisa’s public career as an actress traces one kind of echo from parental background. A household with professional caregivers, an appreciation for discipline, and a cultural life anchored in church music could plausibly cultivate an early confidence and a facility on stage and screen. She was born in 1981, came of age in the 1990s, and her roles in television and film put the family name before a broad audience. Her public interviews and appearances sometimes touch on upbringing; other times they leave family life as a quiet backdrop to a career in entertainment.
Legacy in dates, duties, and voices
Roman Oleynik’s life is recorded in dates and duties: 1936–2003, a medical degree, a naval commission, a residency completed in 1972, a 28-year residence in Los Altos, and a daughter born in 1981 who would enter public life. But legacy is also finer-grained: the congregations that sang under his direction, the patients whose anesthesia was safely managed, the shipboard crews who relied on him as Chief Medical Officer. Those are the echoes that outlast simple facts.
A last register: public record as a map, not the terrain
Public notices, obituaries, and biographical entries create a map — they show where mountains rise and rivers run — but they cannot fully convey the weather or the soil. For Roman Joseph Oleynik that map includes service to country, service to patients, service to community. The markers are concrete: ranks, dates, roles, and relationships. Between those markers lie the private rhythms that defined daily life: a choir rehearsal on a Tuesday evening; a navy watch under a black sky; a bedside administered with steady hands.
