Valdas Adamkus

Valdas Adamkus (born Voldemaras Adamkavičius; 3 November 1926) is a Lithuanian politician, diplomat and civil engineer who served as the fifth and seventh president of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.

Valdas Adamkus was born on 3 November 1926, into a Roman Catholic family in Kaunas.

As a young man, Adamkus joined the underground resistance against the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940.

He Under the Nazi occupation, while attending high school, he distributed an anti-German underground newspaper.

However, he also served in the collaborationist Fatherland Defense Force.

In 1944 as the Germans were leaving the country, his family fled Lithuania in order to avoid the second Soviet occupation.

He attended the University of Munich in Germany before emigrating to the United States in 1949.

Fluent in five languages – Lithuanian, Polish, English, Russian, and German – he served as a senior non-commissioned officer with the United States 5th Army Reserve's military intelligence unit in the 1950s.

In 1951, Adamkus married Alma Nutautaite.

They had no children.

After arriving in Chicago, Illinois as a displaced person, he first worked in an automobile factory and later as a draftsman.

He was originally given the name "Voldemaras Adamkavičius" but had it changed to "Valdas Adamkus" in 1955.

His father was one of the first heads of the Lithuanian Air Force School in the Republic of Lithuania.

His uncle was Edvardas Adamkavičius, who was a general in the Lithuanian Armed Forces during the interwar period.

During his youth, Adamkus was interested in track and field.

He also set the national record for running 100 meters.

Adamkus also raised concerns about other Soviet activities in occupied Lithuania to United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1958, and to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

Adamkus graduated as a civil engineer from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1961.

While a student, Adamkus, together with other Lithuanian Americans, collected about 40,000 signatures petitioning the United States government to intervene in the ongoing deportations of Lithuanians to Siberia by the Soviets.

The petition was presented to then-Vice President Richard Nixon.

He joined the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at its inception in 1970, working in Cincinnati.

In 1972, Adamkus visited Lithuania for the first time in almost thirty years.

He was a member of the official delegation from the United States attending an environmental conference in Moscow.

As perestroika took root in the Soviet Union, Adamkus's visits to his homeland became more frequent.

In 1981, he was appointed regional administrator by President Ronald Reagan, and was responsible for all air, water, hazardous waste, and other pollution control programs in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

In 1985, President Reagan presented him with the Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award – the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a civil servant.

Valdas Adamkus served as regional administrator of the EPA for sixteen years, and retired in 1997, after twenty-nine years of service.

Upon his retirement, he received a congratulatory letter from President Clinton and a Distinguished Career Award from EPA Administrator Carol Browner.

EPA Region 5 presented him with the newly established "Valdas V. Adamkus Sustained Commitment to the Environment Honor Award".

Shortly after leaving the EPA, Valdas Adamkus moved back to Lithuania.

Adamkus' first tenure as president lasted for five years, from 26 February 1998 to 28 February 2003, following his defeat by Rolandas Paksas in the 2003 presidential election.

Soon after his decision to run for presidency in 1998, he faced a legal battle in the Lithuanian courts.

Doubts arose whether Adamkus was eligible to run for the presidency due to having spent over half a century abroad, raising the possibility that he might not meet minimum residency requirements.

Paksas was later impeached and removed from office by a parliamentary vote on 6 April 2004.

Soon afterwards, when a new election was announced, Adamkus again ran for president and was re-elected.

His approval ratings increased during this period and become a highly regarded moral authority in the state.

He was succeeded as president on 12 July 2009 by Dalia Grybauskaitė.

He is considered by some as being one of the best Lithuanian leaders in modern history.

He was married to Alma Adamkienė, who was involved in charitable activities in Lithuania.

Following the end of his term as president, Adamkus remained involved in international development, and is a member of the European Academy of Diplomacy.