Grazina Caplikas Maciuika

Grazina Caplikas Maciuika, 91, of Storrs, Connecticut, was born October 14, 1927, in Kedainiai, Lithuania. After growing up in Lithuania, partly under German and Soviet occupation during World War II, Grazina fled with her parents and sister to Germany in 1944. Finishing high school at a displaced persons camp in Hanau outside Frankfurt, Grazina moved with her mother and sister to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1949.

Grazina received a scholarship from Boston University, where among other activities, she toured the United States with the B.U. chorus, and graduated with a B.A. in German literature. She completed an M.A. in social work at the University of Chicago while working for Catholic charities. In Chicago she also connected with the large Lithuanian diaspora community, including Benedict V. Maciuika, whom she had first met while finishing high school in Hanau. They married in 1955, and moved to Storrs, CT in 1958, when Benedict accepted a professorship at the University of Connecticut. Grazina worked as a school social worker at Vernon public schools for twenty years, taking ten years out to raise three children full time, Laura, Paul, and John. She returned to Lithuania multiple times as soon as that became possible in the early 1970s, reuniting with relatives.

Grazina loved culture and travel, visiting numerous countries with her husband and friends. In 1992, after retiring, she returned to Lithuania for three months to help found an M.A. program in social work at the Kaunas Vytautas Didysis University.

Grazina was a great lover of people and maintained countless long-lasting friendships in both her Lithuanian and U.S. communities. She celebrated her life-long love of literature and language by being an avid reader and participating in both English and Lithuanian language book clubs. She never missed an opportunity to play Scrabble, and usually win. She loved to frequent museums, concerts, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, later watching the opera on screens when trips to New York became no longer possible. She will be greatly missed by family and friends on three continents.

Grazina is pre-deceased by her husband Benedict, who passed away in November 2018, and her son Paul, who passed in 1995. She is survived by her daughter Laura of San Ramon, California, and son John of New York City.

A funeral service will be held on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 10:30am at St. Thomas Aquinas, 46 N. Eagleville Rd., Storrs, CT with a burial to follow at Storrs Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, those who wish may send donations directly to Saulute, an organization that supports orphans in Lithuania; donation checks may be made out and sent directly to: Saulute, 1133 Amber Drive, Lemont, IL, 60439.

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