OSWEGO, NY – Oswego resident Dr. Ram Das Chaudhari died on Saturday June 20, 2015, at Oswego Hospital.
A traditional Hindu funeral ceremony and cremation will be held on June 22 at Nelson Funeral Home.
Dr. Chaudhari was born August 8, 1927, in the village of Bhulpur in the Etawah District of Uttar Pradesh, India, to father Kalicharan and mother Kanchan.
After graduating from Agra University he spent six years as a physics lecturer at the Motilal Nehru Science Mahavidyalaya in Bhopal, India.
He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics in 1964 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
He completed postdoctoral research at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Canada, in 1966 and then joined SUNY Oswego, where he served as a distinguished physics professor until retiring in 1998 and stayed on as Professor Emeritus afterwards.
At SUNY Oswego he taught 18 courses and implemented medical physics and biological physics into the curriculum.
Dr. Chaudhari led a life of service.
In 1968, he started the Kisan Middle School in his native Bhulpur to educate underprivileged children, especially girls.
In 2004 it was certified as an intermediate college and was renamed Kisan Inter College.
Today, the school has a staff of 12 teachers and more than 450 students from Bhulpur and surrounding villages.
He personally contributed more than $100,000 to the school and donated much of his family’s ancestral property to start a charitable and educational foundation to initiate outreach programs in the areas of adult education, health and public hygiene.
He was also active in the promotion of Indian culture and the Hindi language, serving in executive roles with the International Hindi Association, the World Hindi Foundation and the India Community Religious and Cultural Center of upstate New York, and publishing a collection of essays in India about several Indian national heroes.
In honor of his lifetime of selfless volunteer community service, Dr. Chaudhari received the U.S. President’s “Call to Service” Award from the Obama Administration in August 2013.
He was active in the Indian community in central New York.
He was president for two terms of ICRCC Indian community in Central New York.
He organized the Indian Festival in the campus of SUNY Oswego in 1980.
He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Raj; his brother, Ram Sevak; his three sons, Satyendra, Sudhir and Rajeev; his daughter, Asha; his seven grandsons, Suvid, Saket, Gaurav, Ruchir, Amit, Rishabh and Ankur; and his five great-grandchildren, Sudev, Surya, Saanvi, Siya and Suhani.
Calling hours will be held noon to 1:30 p.m. Monday with a service to follow at the Nelson Funeral Home, 11 W. Albany St., Oswego.
Donations to the Kisan Inter College and condolences to the family may be sent to 54 Perry Hill Road, Oswego, NY 13126.
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What a legacy, professor. Both the college, community and your family must be extremely proud to have had you walking this earth with us.
Bhagav na bhal kar
A student at SUNY who never got to take a class, but recognized you.