The California Lithuanian Credit Union’s (CLCU) annual meeting took place this month, and highlighted Roque & Mark founder and President, Albinas Markevicius, for his lifelong commitment to community service and education. “He has been our invisible angel,” said Mary Sandanaviciute-Newsom, longtime principal of the Lithuanian Saturday school in Silverlake. “He has supported us in word and in deed.”
Albinas, known to many as Mr. Mark, co-founded the CLCU in 1969 after he, and fellow co-founders, saw a need for greater loan accessibility to recent immigrants who wanted to build investments. He began his tenure on the CLCU’s Board of Directors that same year and continued until his recent retirement in 2022 at age ninety-two. His fifty-three years of dedicated volunteer service also included decades spent as the board’s chairman and upon his retirement he was succeeded by his son, Marius Markevicius.
For decades, Albinas led the credit union’s support of the community school which teaches immigrants and subsequent generations Lithuanian language, history, music and dance, among other subjects. The school operates at Saint Casimir church by Marshall High School. It is the oldest operating Lithuanian school in the United States, and the only one to educate students from preschool through senior year of high school. This year, the Saturday school featured nine high school senior graduates who were each granted $250 gifts by the credit union. Local and regional teachers also received funding by the organization which is based in Santa Monica and also offers online services.
“I am always learning,” said Albinas, now aged ninety-four. “I have always been trying to get my hands on books, take classes. From each book or teacher, there is at least one lesson you can take.” Albinas was born in Lithuania and fled at age fourteen with his family during World War II. They were homeless refugees until their immigration to North America. He finished four grades of school in Lithuania before going to work full-time on the small family farm at age eleven. He attended drafting school at night as a young man in Montreal and later earned his associate of arts degree from Santa Monica College in 1969. He graduated the same year that the credit union received its state charter and was founded.
Albinas and his wife have personally donated to the Lithuanian school, and during his chairmanship and leadership with other organizations, he led donations from those groups as well. He is well known in the Lithuanian community for his charity work. One project included shipping discarded books from Santa Monica public schools to rural and other schools in Lithuania, funded by the Lithuanian Assistance Foundation. The foundation also purchased sets of new books to help English teachers in Lithuania, and those books included the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beverly Cleary, and other well-known English-language children’s authors. Since that time, the Lithuanian workforce has become well-known for fluency and other languages, boosting the small nation’s economy as a good place for international firms to do business. Firms such as LinkedIn and international accountancy firms invested heavily in the Lithuanian workforce.
Praise and gratitude from the Lithuanian school in Los Angeles is part of a long line of thanks for Albinas’ financial and organizational support. Other notable accolades include the Take Action Award (1985), Distinguished Service Award (1989), and Above & Beyond Award (2023) from the Action Apartment Association. He was also awarded a commendation for dedicated service and civic pride benefiting citizens of Los Angeles County (2011) by the County of Los Angeles, a certificate of Appreciation for support of September 11th relief efforts (2001) by the American Red Cross, a certificate of Appreciation for service to the Lithuanian-American community (1998) by the Los Angeles City Council, a certificate of Recognition for hosting the Reception for Prof. Vytautas Landsbergis (1991) by Santa Monica College, certificates of Recognition for service to the community and real estate industry (1985) by the County of Los Angeles, Mayor’s Commendation for service to the community and real estate industry (1985) by the City of Santa Monica, and the Order of the Šauliai Star for service to the Lithuanian nation and its people (1979) by Lithuanian Šauliai Abroad.
In Lithuania he was also awarded several accolades including a Certificate of appreciation from the MO Museum, honorary membership to the Slavikai Village Council, a Certificate of Appreciation for donated subscriptions to the regional ethnographic publication (2002) from “Suvalkija” Magazine, and a Certificate of Appreciation for support to the university (1999) and the Senate’s Certificate of Appreciation for long-term financial support to the Education Sciences (2013) both from Vytautas Magnus University. Perhaps most notably Albinas was also awarded the Diplomatic Star of the Republic of Lithuania (2012) and the Medal of Honor of the Republic of Lithuania (2019) by the Office of the Foreign Minister for Service to the Nation.