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Prof. J. Matulionis paskaitoje, 1973 m. (KTU fotoarchyvas)

Life's calling – to teach: Prof. Jonas Matulionis – 120

KTU muziejaus virtualios parodos

On February 1, mathematician, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Jonas Matulionis (1906–1993) would have turned 120 years old. Prof. J. Matulionis worked at the university for as many as 50 years – 99 semesters – during the difficult period of Nazi and Soviet occupations, witnessed the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, and retired at the end of the summer of 1991. In 1950, J. Matulionis wrote and published the two-volume textbook “Higher Mathematics,” comprising 80 printer’s sheets. In the preface to the textbook, J. Matulionis wrote: “It is the author’s wish that this course would mark the beginning of further literature on higher mathematics in the Lithuanian language and serve our students as much as possible.” For two decades after the war, this book was the only higher mathematics textbook in Lithuanian intended for students of higher technical schools. On the occasion of the anniversary, the KTU Museum prepared this virtual exhibition, which uses documents from the KTU archive, photographs from the KTU photo archive, and materials from the family of Prof. J. Matulionis and his former colleagues. The author of the exhibition is Dr. Audronė Velentienė, Head of the KTU Museum.

A Difficult Path to Science

Jonas Matulionis was born on February 1, 1906, in Moscow. In 1910, he returned to Lithuania with his parents and settled in Antakalniai village near Utena. When his father went to work in the USA, the family lived in poverty. The situation worsened when his mother died of typhoid. From then on, Jonas Matulionis and his older brother, left as orphans, were cared for by relatives.

After finishing primary school, J. Matulionis began studying at the Utena Progymnasium, walking five years on foot from Antakalniai village. In 1924, having graduated from the Utena Progymnasium with thirty litas in his pocket, he walked to Panevėžys to study at the gymnasium, graduating in 1926. After finishing gymnasium, in the same year he enrolled in the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Lithuanian University.

During his studies, J. Matulionis had to live on the support of his older brother and what he earned by giving private lessons. During this period, he became ill. Although a delayed appendicitis operation was successful, the illness and a life full of hardship exhausted him so much that he could no longer continue studying. Therefore, having completed university courses but not defended his diploma, he decided to temporarily suspend his studies and look for work.

In 1931, J. Matulionis was hired at the Panevėžys branch of the Bank of Lithuania. However, although this work allowed him to repay debts accumulated during his studies, it did not provide moral satisfaction, so he decided to leave it. On November 10, 1933, by order of the Minister of Education, he was appointed junior mathematics teacher at Raseiniai Gymnasium. In 1934, J. Matulionis defended his diploma thesis, “Hölder and Cesàro Means” (supervisor – O. Folkas).

In 1936, at his own request, J. Matulionis was transferred to work at Vilkaviškis Gymnasium. In 1938, he was appointed inspector of Raseiniai Gymnasium. J. Matulionis was a very conscientious inspector. For his strictness, students gave him the fitting nickname “Cerberus,” emphasizing that the inspector’s main duty was to vigilantly oversee everything.

In 1940, after the Soviet authorities arrested the director of Raseiniai Gymnasium, J. Matulionis was appointed director of the gymnasium. He was dismissed from the director’s position in July 1941 and appointed mathematics teacher at Kaunas 8th Gymnasium. From August 1941, he also worked as an assistant in the Mathematics Department at Vytautas Magnus University (VDU). In November 1942, he requested to be released from his gymnasium teaching duties and moved to VDU’s Mathematics Department as senior assistant. In the 1942/43 academic year, he was already lecturing to pharmacy students. In February 1945, he was appointed Head of the Mathematics Department at Kaunas State Vytautas Magnus University. Since almost all of the department’s staff had left for the West in 1944, he had to rebuild the department, which had only 3–4 lecturers until 1950. In 1948, J. Matulionis was awarded the title of docent.

Pedagogical and Administrative Work at KPI

At the end of 1950, Kaunas State Vytautas Magnus University was reorganized into Kaunas Polytechnic Institute, and its Faculty of Medicine became Kaunas Medical Institute. J. Matulionis was appointed Head of the Department of Higher Mathematics at KPI. As department head, J. Matulionis handled all organizational responsibilities – staffing, organizing the study process, and improving the scientific qualifications of the staff. The department’s personnel grew from 3 lecturers in 1945 to 19 lecturers by 1962. He held these duties until 1962, when the Department of Higher Mathematics was divided into two departments – General Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. J. Matulionis was appointed Head of the Department of General Mathematics, a position he held until July 1968.

Simultaneously, J. Matulionis served as Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering from 1951 to 1962, and from 1964 to 1976 as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Radioelectronics; later he worked in the department as docent, and from 1990 as acting professor. Although strict and demanding, earning the nickname “the axe” from students, he was well-liked. This was especially evident during his jubilees, when crowds of former students came to congratulate him. When the Perkūnas sculpture, striking lightning, was erected near the Electronics Building, students immediately nicknamed it “Matulionis,” as J. Matulionis was then Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Radioelectronics.

In 1948, J. Matulionis began writing the two-volume textbook Higher Mathematics, with the first edition published in 1950 in a total print run of 5,100 copies. It was a large work, nearly 80 printer’s sheets across two volumes. In 1954, the second edition was published with a total of 10,000 copies. The third edition followed in 1959 with the same print run, and after a longer interval, the fourth edition was published in 1966 and 1968 in a total, today almost unimaginable, print run of 32,000 copies. From 1950 almost until 1960, J. Matulionis’s book was the only higher mathematics textbook in Lithuanian available to students. The textbook was very popular among KPI students, and generations of future engineers studied from it. For this book, J. Matulionis was awarded the State Science Prize in 1972.

J. Matulionis retired in 1991. He died on June 8, 1993, and was buried in Petrašiūnai Cemetery in Kaunas.

Family and Values

Prof. J. Matulionis belonged to a generation whose life principles were based on Christian morality and beautiful family traditions passed down from generation to generation. On March 9, 1943, Jonas Matulionis married Lithuanian language teacher Stasė Grybinaitė. The family raised a daughter, Jūratė Matulionytė Petruškevičienė, who became a textile artist and docent at the Department of Textiles, Kaunas Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

J. Matulionis remained faithful to these beautiful traditions throughout his life, often quietly and modestly. He worked at KPI during a difficult period, especially in the first postwar decades, yet he remained honorable and conscientious. Written accounts indicate that he was able to help the children of deportees who sought education, even though doing so could have caused him harm. Those who knew J. Matulionis more closely recall that the Matulionis family always tried to help those in need of their support.

Commemoration

While Prof. J. Matulionis was still alive, the mathematicians of Kaunas University of Technology honored him in 1990 by naming a young mathematicians’ competition after him, which each year brings together hundreds of students from all over Lithuania. In 2006, KTU solemnly marked the 100th anniversary of Prof. J. Matulionis’s birth. For the jubilee, a booklet was published, a classroom at the KTU Faculty of Fundamental Sciences was named after the professor, and a ceremonial event was held in the auditorium, attended by Prof. J. Matulionis’s classmate, academician Jonas Kubilius, family members, and KTU community members.

In 2016, the KTU academic community commemorated the 110th anniversary of Prof. J. Matulionis’s birth: Dr. A. Velentienė, Head of the KTU Museum, organized a virtual exhibition titled “99 Semesters at the University: Prof. Jonas Matulionis – 110”, and KTU Publishing House Technologija released Juozas Stražnickas’s book “Mathematician Jonas Matulionis: Stations of a Life”, which was presented at the jubilee celebration.