Adolfas Akelaitis

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameAdolfas•Akelaitis
Used nameAdolfas•Akelaitis
Nick/petnamesAddy
Born16 January 1910 in Marijampolė, Marijampolė (LTU)
Died21 December 2007 in Colleyville, Texas (USA)
NOC Lithuania

Biography

Addy Akelaitis competed for Lithuania at the 1928 Olympic Games in the high jump. While in Europe, he served in the Lithuanian Army, studied French at the University of Liège in Belgium, and business at the University of Vienna. He then started work with Lietukas, the largest Lithuanian import/export company, which imported petroleum products and exported grains. In 1938 Akelaitis came to the US to set up the Lithuanian-American Import and Export Corp. in New York City. He met his wife, Alice Pelkus, at a dinner-dance shortly after settling in the US, and they were married in September 1939. Although they lived initially in Queens, and later in Rockville Centre, Long Island, in 1946 they bought a 125-acre farm in Raritan Township, New Jersey. Originally a weekend getaway, they would soon settle there, and Akelaitis would also become a gentleman farmer, raising sheep, beef cattle, and horses. Akelaitis worked as a comptroller for Flemington Furs in New Jersey after he left the import/export business. After his wife’s death in 2000, he settled in Colleyville, Texas in 2003.

Personal Best: HJ – 1.78 (1928).

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1928 Summer Olympics Athletics LTU Adolfas Akelaitis
High Jump, Men (Olympic) 33 r1/2