Luidas K. Volodka

I attended the visitation for Liudas K. "Lou" Volodka today. Lou was born in November 1941 in Lithuania. It wasn't an auspicious time to be a baby - the country had been occupied in 1939 by the Russians (part of the deal with them allowing Hitler to take Poland) and then, Hitler double-crossed Stalin and overran Lithuania. Hitler's armies were at the gates of Moscow, and the US was mere weeks away from Pearl Harbor.

Lou and his family came to America when he was eight. I found out today at the funeral home that Lou's dad didn't come over - he died in Germany. Lou raised a family, and got involved in Rotary, where I had the pleasure and honor of meeting him.

Lou was an unpretentious man. In Rotary, he took such jobs as District Secretary, database administrator, and conference registrar. In these jobs, if you do it well, nobody notices, and if you screw it up, your name is Mudd. Lou did these jobs well, but these were not the kind of jobs one did to get your picture taken with the muckety-mucks handing out the big checks. In fact Lou was probably the guy behind the camera taking the picture. His motto (and email address) was "Lu Can Do" and it was the literal truth.

Rotary's motto is "Service Above Self." Past District Governor Chris Reilly and I thought that Lou exemplified that motto, so we conspired to get him the Cedric Pope "Spirit of Rotary" award, our district's highest honor. It was exactly the kind of thing that Lou wouldn't put himself in for, so we did it for him. Now that he's gone, I'm glad that I did.

Besides a Rotarian and a family man, Lou was an artist. He made Lithuanian Easter Eggs, an art which involved draining an egg without ruining the shell and then decorating the shell. Tricky and beautiful stuff.

Lou told his children that at his funeral he wanted people to drink a toast to him. At the wake today, there was a bottle of Crown Royal and shotglasses. I said a prayer and made a toast. Lou - I will miss you.

Donations in lieu of flowers to Lithuanian Children's Hope a non-profit dedicated to medical treatment of Lithuanian children.