100 Aciu - Eddie Gudelis

Eduardas Gudelis

Eddie (Dad) was born May 4, 1940 in Kaunas.  His biological father, Jonas Kondrotas, was an officer in the Lithuanian army.   He was arrested, sent to Siberia and later died there.  Juze, dad’s mother, never knew what happened to her husband.  Antanas Gudelis was there for her at this difficult time.  She married him and adopted dad.

As a family, they lived in refugee camps until 1949 when they arrived in Australia.  The family first lived in a share house in the city (Kintore Avenue) whilst having a house built at 8 Princes St, Prospect.

From a young age he was involved within the Adelaide Lithuanian Community – scouting, as a member of the Žilvinas Dancing Group and he also played basketball for the “Vytis” Sports Club.  In his later years he was an ALB and Vytis Sports Club member.

In his formative years, he was an altar boy and also had a private Catholic education at the Christian Brother’s College.  He was quite rebellious and enjoyed wagging school and going to the movies or playing football with his mates.

His love of sport included playing and watching basketball which he was passionate about.  He instilled the love the game into me.  He drove me to basketball games as a teenager and was a vocal supporter from the sidelines.  Later on we had season tickets for Adelaide 36’ers games for years.

His first love was basketball until he met mum and they had two daughters Kristina and Natalie.  Dad was very family orientated and every weekend we visited “Babytė” and “Senelis” and went to Sunday mass.

He was a quiet, selfless and caring person always thinking of others before himself.  He also had a dry sense of humour.

He instilled in me an interest in the Lithuanian community of which I am still involved.

Dad made sure both Nat and I worked hard for what we wanted and instilled in us the value of being humble about our achievements.

Submitted by his daughter, Kristina.