Obituaries

V.R. Lakshminath was a family-first man of discipline, curiosity, patience, and calmness who was a renowned professor across the world and lived life on his own accord. He was a forward-thinking progressive who was ahead of his time, cared for the underserved, and brought his community up with him. He was a strict but loving teacher, brother, and parent and an indulgent grandfather to his six grandchildren whom he helped raise like a father — including his youngest grandson Pranav, whom he called his best friend.

He had many nicknames throughout his life like “Tiger” in his younger years and “Scooterthata” in his latter years, an homage to his iconic lime green scooter.

He is survived by his wife, Vijayalakshmi Lakshminath Virinchipuram, siblings, Nagarajan Ramamurthy and Sumathy Srinivasan, children, Rama Shankar, Indira Iyer, and Anand Lakshminath, and grandchildren, Michelle Shankar, Kevin Shankar, Puja Iyra, Pranav Iyer, Megna Anand, and Meera Anand.

He was preceded in death by his parents, V.S. Ramamurthy and Mangalam Ramamurthy, siblings, Subramaniam Ramamurthy, Bhanumathy Narasimhan, Indumathy Venkataramanan, Shivakumar Ramamurthy, and Padmavathy Ramamurthy.

V.R.L. was a devout Hindu and Sai Baba devotee. He served in the National Cadet Corps as a Lieutenant. He had a Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics, Civil Engineering from IIT Madras. He was a professor in three countries, India, Iraq, and Ethiopia, across two continents, Asia and Africa. At Osmania University in Hyderabad, he was the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering.

He was a simple man who found joy in hobbies like attending the bhajans, reading novels and the newspaper, doing crossword puzzles, watching cricket and action movies, playing chess and rummy, learning about history, geography, and politics, and indulging in the cuisines of the world.

As he said himself, V.R.L. experienced all that he wanted to in life before his passing. His legacy will live on through his descendants who love him dearly.