On September 30, Liūtas Mockūnas would have turned 90. To mark the occasion, his contributions were commemorated during a memorial afternoon organized by the Vytautas Magnus University’s World Lithuanian University at the L. and F. Mockūnas Space in Vilnius. Memories were shared by those who had closely interacted with Mockūnas, including Egidijus Aleksandravičius, Vytautas Žalys, Vytautas Adomaitis, as well as Skirma and Ramūnas Kondratai.

In 1959, Mockūnas graduated from Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, but he soon realized that he was more drawn to the humanities than engineering. Between 1959 and 1986, he worked in Chicago as a consulting engineer and coal transportation specialist for power plant design firms. Simultaneously, he began studying literature in the evenings at the University of Chicago. After moving to Chicago in 1959, Mockūnas settled in the Lithuanian neighborhood of Marquette Park, became actively involved in Lithuanian community in Chicago life, and started contributing to the diaspora press — Margutis, Metmenys and Akiračiai — where he published articles and reviews.