Vida Bandis, a long-standing member of the Lithuanian World Community, has died at the age of 91, the organisation said on Tuesday.
Lithuanian World Community chair Dalia Henke described her as an inspiring figure who dedicated her life to the community, education and strengthening ties between the Lithuanian diaspora and the home country.
Vida Gaskaitė-Bandis was born in 1934 in Molėtai. Her family left Lithuania during World War Two, first migrating to Western Europe and later to the United States. For more than 40 years, Bandis worked in finance and higher education management, serving as executive vice president of University of Maryland Global Campus.
Between 1960 and 1999, she lived in Germany and the US. In 1999, she returned to Lithuania and worked at the Ministry of Education and Science, the Support Centre for Foreign Lithuanians and the Baltic Management Institute.
From 2009 to 2022, she served as the World Lithuanian Community representative in Lithuania on a voluntary basis.
Bandis received numerous state and diaspora awards for her work, including the Officer's Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania in 2018 and the Global Lithuania Award for lifetime achievement in 2022.
President Gitanas Nausėda described her as an example of how Lithuanians abroad contribute to strengthening the country and fostering ties with the diaspora. Condolences were also expressed by Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas.
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