Valdas Adamkus

Valdas Adamkus (born 3 November 1926) is a Lithuanian politician and engineer. He was the President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.

Life
He was born on November 3, 1926, in Kaunas, Lithuania. His birth name was Valdemaras Adamkavičius. In 1951, he married Alma Adamkienė.

On 3 January 2025, Adamkus was hospitalized in Vilnius after experiencing heart failure. Nine months later, in late September, Adamkus was hospitalized again for an infection.

Career
Before entering politics in Lithuania, Adamkus emigrated to the United States, having studied and lived in Chicago and Ohio. In the 1970s, he worked for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, serving as the agency's deputy administrator for the Great Lakes Region.

First elected in 1998, he ended his term in office in 2003. When Rolandas Paksas, the new elected president, was impeached and removed by the Lithuanian Parliament in 2004, Adamkus was re-elected. He chose not to run for re-election during the Lithuanian presidential election in 2009.  He was succeeded on 12 July 2009 by Dalia Grybauskaitė.

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

References

Other websites

 Website of the Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus  
 The Official Website of the President of the Republic of Lithuania  
 Videos of the President of the Republic of Lithuania 
 2005 Interview with a Ukrainian journalist  
 Acknowledgement of lifetime achievements at the US EPA
 European Voice – Mister persistent Valdas Adamkus
 Institution of the President of the Republic of Lithuania 

Category:People from Kaunas
Category:Presidents of Lithuania
Category:1926 births
Category:Living people
Category:Civil engineers
Category:American Roman Catholics
Category:American military people
Category:Scientists from Chicago
Category:Anti-communists
Category:Environmentalists
Category:Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Category:Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Category:Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Category:Politicians from Chicago
Category:Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)
Category:Recipients of the Order pro merito Melitensi
Category:Republicans (United States)