Date:31/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/31/stories/2008013154571300.htm

National

Thiruvenkatachari passes away

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Eminent educationist S. Thiruvenkatachari passed away here on Monday. He was 97.

Thiruvenkatachari, who devoted his life for the cause of education, had authored books on the strategies and modalities for making ‘Education for All’ a reality.

He was intimately associated with the growth of many premier educational institutions such as the Ramakrishna Mission, Meston Training College and the Karaikudi Alagappa Teachers’ Training College as a teacher, UGC Professor and the Principal.

Thiruvenkatachari was among the first batch of scholars to be invited to the United States in the early 1950s under the Fulbright Programme. He took his Ph.D. from the Columbia University.

His multi-faceted talents encompassed writing and directing plays in Tamil, bringing out commentaries on Sanskrit classics and evolving new methodologies and techniques in teaching and communication.

He was an effective communicator and retained till the end his phenomenal memory and intellectual curiosity.

Many prominent personalities were his students. Of them, General K. Sundarji, soon after becoming the Army Chief, flew in here to take his blessings.