Adolfas Damušis

Garbės daktaras / Honorary Doctor (Suteiktas vardas 1997-03-26)

Professor Adolfas Damušis (1908-2003), an academic of the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science, a doctor of technical sciences, a notable figure in the Catholic community and Ateitis Federation, one of the organisers and leaders of the 1941 uprising, and bearer of the Cross of Vytis, was awarded VMU honorary doctorate regalia in 1997. Adolfas Damušis was one of the few Lithuanians honoured with the Vatican’s Order of St. Sylvester, bestowed by the Blessed Pope John Paul II himself.

Adolfas Damušis was born on 16 June 1908 in Toshchitsa, Mogilev region. In 1920, he returned to Lithuania with his parents. In 1932, he founded the still-active corporation “Grandis” of engineers of the organisation Ateitis. He graduated from the VMU Technical Faculty in 1934, where he subsequently worked, becoming the Head of the Inorganic Chemistry Department in 1940 and serving as the Dean of the Faculty from 1942 to 1943. Between 1936 and 1940, he examined chalk and limestone beds near Kaunas and in the region of Naujoji Akmenė. From 1937 to 1938, he specialised in cement factories in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Finland. In 1939, he prepared a project for a cement factory in Skirsnemunė, based on which a factory was built in Naujoji Akmenė. In 1941, he led the Military Staff of the Lithuanian Activist Front in Kaunas, co-organised and led the June Uprising, and served as the Minister of Industry in the Provisional Government of Lithuania. He was one of the organisers of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, serving as its Vice-Chairman from 1943 to 1944. For his efforts in organising resistance against the Nazi occupation, he was imprisoned in Germany from 1944 to 1945. He was also one of the founders and leaders of the Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners of the Anti-Nazi Resistance. In 1947, Adolfas Damušis moved to the USA, where he worked for companies such as Sherwin-Williams and BASF Wyandotte. Later, from 1973 to 1983, he pursued an academic career, serving as a professor at the University of Detroit and as the Vice-Director of the Polymer Research Institute. He led the Ateitis Federation from 1946 to 1952 and chaired its council from 1957 to 1964 and later from 1977 to 1983. He also led the Friends of the Lithuanian Front organisation from 1947 to 1950 and from 1966 to 1969. From 1948 to 1954, he was the Vice-Chairman of the Lithuanian Roman Catholic Federation of America and chaired the federation for a year thereafter.

While in the US, the professor did not sever ties with his homeland: he actively participated in the case for the liberation of Soviet-occupied Lithuania and wrote extensively for the Lithuanian press. In 1957, he established the Lithuanian youth camp “Dainava” in the US, which he led for several decades. From 1985 to 1987, he served as the deputy chairman of the Executive Committee formed to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the baptism of Lithuania. In 1997, he returned to Lithuania with his wife.

Professor Damušis authored 24 patented inventions, books, and studies, including “Urethane Coatings: Treatise on Coatings” (1967), “Sealants” (1967), “Lietuvos gyventojų aukos ir nuostoliai Antrojo pasaulinio karo ir pokario 1940–1959 metais” (Victims and Losses of Lithuania During the Years of World War II and After the War (1940-1959), 1988), “Lietuvių pogrindis vokiečių saugumo policijos dokumentuose” (The Lithuanian Underground in German Security Police Documents, 1989), and “Lithuania Against Soviet and Nazi Aggression” (1994).

Adolfas Damušis passed away on 27 February 2003 in Vilnius.

Based on information provided by VMU Library.