In his words, the father’s health deteriorated in the weeks prior to his passing.
Born in the Ukmergė district, Zinkevičius started his academic career in 1946. Zinkevicius headed the Lithuanian Language Department at the Vilnius University’s Faculty of Philology in 1973-1988 and the Department of Baltic Philology in 1988-1991.
His main fields of work included the history of the Lithuanian language, dialects and Baltic studies.
Zinkevičius also worked as director of the Lithuanian Language Institute before serving as the minister of education and science in the government in 1996-1998 and a state consultant on education and science matters in 1998-1999.
He has published around 50 monographs, including the six volumes of the History of the Lithuanian Language (1984–1994), as well as approximately 1,000 articles in Lithuanian and foreign languages.