What we want from and what we can do in the World Lithuanian community: the work of its chairman Juozas Bačiūnas

Juozas Bačiūnas (Bachunas) (1893–1969) was one of the none-too-numerous firstgeneration immigrants (the so-called greenhorns) who actively supported the idea of the World Lithuanian Community (WLC , Lith. PLB) and contributed to its implementation. This article outlines Bachunas’s activities while he served as chairman of the World Lithuanian Community from 1963 to 1968, with an emphasis on the projects he initiated and executed. Bachunas joined in WLC activities when his involvement was needed the most. This was a time when many in the older as well as in the newer emigration looked upon the WLC with some hesitancy and doubt, and the concept and future of the WLC itself were not yet clear. Upon assuming the WLC chairmanship in 1963, Bachunas asserted himself as a civic leader of considerable experience with a great deal of energy to expend on Lithuanian affairs. This unpaid position was not only a matter of honourable service to him; it also demanded a lot of work, effort, and money from him as well as taking a toll on his health. The first World Lithuanian Youth Congress, the journal Pasaulio lietuvis (World Lithuanian), the Press and Radio Convention, and other ideas and initiatives of his were realized when he became WLC chairman and continued to be implemented after his death. In travelling heavily and visiting Lithuanians in other countries, Bachunas became familiar, well-known, and well-liked not only in the United States but throughout the free world’s Lithuanian communities. Thanks to his life experience, unassumed simplicity, and strong vitality, he became a symbolic “President of all Lithuanians” joining together Lithuanians of different generations, different waves of emigration, and living in America or other countriesLietuvių išeivijos institutasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta