Chellappa Kumar's Obituary
Chellappa Kumar, 70, recently of Oakland, California; formerly of Clarksville, MD and Long Island, NY, died peacefully on July 10, 2023, with his family by his side. We lost him suddenly, after he suffered injuries from fall due to some heart issues.
He is survived by his darling wife of 37 years, Eileen Donlon; his son Selvan and daughter-in-law Shefali Nath; their daughter, his adored granddaughter Imara; his sister Rajam (Narayan Anand); brother Chellappa Balan (Ruma DasGupta); sister Bavani (Sarabtek Singh Johar); his beloved aunt, cousins, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his father Subbayer Chellappa and mother Narayanan Lakshmi.
Kumar was born in 1953 in Madurai, India. He spent his early years in Madurai and grew up in the South Indian villages of Aranthangi, Nagapattinam, and Kaniyur in Tamil Nadu. He won the prestigious National Science Talent Scholarship in 1966, a rarity for a student educated in village schools.
Kumar attended Madras Christian College in Chennai, graduating in 1971. He earned a masters degree in Chemistry from Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) Pilani in 1973, and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur in 1980. During his post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania’s Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, he met his wife, whom he married in Philadelphia in 1986.
Kumar returned to India in 1984 and became an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong, Meghalaya. He joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi as Associate Professor of Biochemistry in 1986. He was dearly loved by his students and colleagues as an outstanding educator, mentor, student advocate and warden of Narmada Hostel.
Kumar returned to the USA after his wife had medical issues in India. He became a Professor of Biochemistry at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM), where he also served as Chief Information Officer (CIO). While leading the Biochemistry course, he became interested in applying technology to facilitate and enhance traditional medical education. He had the vision, leadership and technical skills to transform NYCOM to provide streaming, on demand, lectures beginning in the 90’s, and implemented many other visionary educational technologies across the entire medical curriculum that were far ahead of their time. Kumar also built pipeline programs to improve underprivileged access to medical education. He retired to Maryland in 2014.
Kumar loved learning more than anything besides his family. He had insatiable curiosity, and wanted to know everything about everything. He was a voracious reader and experimenter. He loved literature, art, history, science, math, technology, music, films, travel, architecture, nature, philosophy, Urdu poetry, humanity, good food, gardening and so much more. He put his learning into practice as a scientist, educator, technologist, mentor, baker, cook, home renovator, gardener, financial planner, data scientist, friend, and family man. He was kind and gentle, and always knew the right thing to say. If you crossed paths with Kumar, your life was blessed in ways you never anticipated or appreciated.
Kumar frequently expressed tremendous gratitude to his mother and all of his siblings for their generous support, without which his many accomplishments would not have been possible. He said he owed everything to them.
Kumar loved peanuts and Indian snacks, especially moori; traditional South Indian dishes like avial, kuttu, curd rice and pickles; and sweets of all kinds. He learned to make fabulous breads, pizzas, and bagels when the ones available in Maryland did not meet his high standards.
The last years of Kumar's life were some of his most vital. Despite all the roles he embraced, he gave priority to being a grandfather (Thatha) to his beloved Imara, for whom he moved to Oakland to care for and love. Never one to rest on his accomplishments, his last project was renovating the kitchen and planting a community garden plot in his new home, which will continue to nurture his family and community as he did.
There will be a private ceremony at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, followed by a walk through Mountain View Cemetary, which Kumar enjoyed, and a gathering for friends and family at home
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