Stasys Lozoraitis
Garbės daktaras / Honorary Doctor (Suteiktas vardas 1991-09-18)
Stasys Lozoraitis (1924–1994), a lawyer, diplomat, Lithuanian Ambassador to the USA, and representative to the Holy See, was awarded VMU honorary doctorate regalia in 1992. For his merits to Lithuania, he was posthumously awarded the Cross of Vytis of the First Class.
Born on 2 August 1924 in Berlin, Germany, Lozoraitis studied law at the University of Rome from 1944 to 1948. He began his career at the Lithuanian Legation to the Holy See in 1943, becoming a counsellor in 1944, the First Secretary in 1964, and the representative of Lithuania from 1970 to 1991. From 1983, he additionally served as counsellor and from 1987 as chargé d’affaires and envoy at the Lithuanian legation in the USA.
Lozoraitis was active in promoting the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, participating in various conferences and contributing to publications such as “Europos lietuvis” (The European Lithuanian) and “Santarvė” (Accord), as well as to the Italian press. From 1946 to 1948, he worked in the editorial office of the newspaper “Lietuvių balsas” (The Voice of Lithuanians). He participated in the activities of Italian Lithuanians, chairing the Central Lithuanian Committee in 1950 and the Temporary Organising Committee of the Italian Lithuanian Community from 1950 to 1952. He was also active in the International Association of Intellectuals in Exile.
In March 1990, Stasys Lozoraitis was granted the rank of Special Envoy. He participated in the restoration and international consolidation of Lithuania’s independence by providing information and proposals to the leadership of the Republic of Lithuania and the Sąjūdis movement, sending instructions (pro memoria) to officials of the Lithuanian diplomatic service and diplomatic letters to members of many governments, and strengthening the ties between Lithuanians at home and in the diaspora. In October 1991, he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania to the United States of America and ran for the presidency of Lithuania in 1993. From 1993 to 1994, he served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania to Italy. He passed away on 13 June 1994 in Washington, D.C. He was initially buried in Putnam, USA, and reinterred in 1999 at Petrašiūnai Cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania.
In 1996, a monument to Stasys Lozoraitis was erected in Kaunas, sculpted by J. Šlivinskas and designed by architects A. Mikėnas, B. Poniškaitienė, and J. Poniškaitis. In 1999, the film “Vilties ir Garbės prezidentas” (President of Hope and Honour), directed and written by Vytautas V. Landsbergis, was released. In 2000, the Museum of S. and S. Lozoraičiai was established in the former building of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kaunas (now the VMU rectorate building), in the office of Stasys Lozoraitis Sr.
Based on information provided by VMU Library.
