Literary and theatrical scholar Bronius Vaškelis was born on November 14, 1922, in Puodžiai village, Užpaliai, Utena district. He lectured on the Russian language at University of Pennsylvania (1962-1963) and was a docent of Russian literature (1964-1970), professor (1970) and a head of the Department of Foreign Languages at Lafayette College (1964-1984). He was a professor of Lithuanian literature and the head of the Department of Lithuanian studies at Illinois University (1984-1992). From 1984, he moved deeper into all themes of Lithuanian literature and theatrical science in Lithuanian and English languages. He was one of the editors of “Lituanus” and “Journal of Baltic Studies”, also, a bibliographic fellow of Lietuvių enciklopedija (The Lithuanian Encyclopedia - Boston) and “Modern Languages Association”. From 1985 to 1989, he was the chairman of the Lithuania Studies Institute (Chicago). Since 1991, he has been a member of Lithuanian Writer’s Union. When he returned to Lithuania, he became involved in the activities of Vytautas Magnum University. In 1992, the professor became a Dean in the Humanitarian Sciences faculty as well as pro-rector, and in 1993, he was elected a rector. He also was a member of the Restored Senate and Senate in which his term of office ended in 1997. In the same year, he was conferred an Honorary degree of Professor of Vytautas Magnum University by its Senate. For his merits to Lithuania, he was awarded the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas medal – fifth class. From 1997 to 2003, he was the head of the Theatrical Science Department of at the School of Arts. Currently, he is a professor of literature and theatrical science and still works in the Theatrical Science Department at the School of Arts.

The photo is from the author’s personal archive.