(4 April 1948 – 21 August 1996)

Bangalore Gururajachar Raghavendra was born in Bangalore. He received his primary education in Soladevanahalli and later studied at the M.E.S. High School in Bangalore. As a student at the Government College, Bangalore, he used to commute daily by train from Soladevanahalli. Utilizing whatever little time that was left, he completed his studies with a first class bachelor’s in Mathematics and Statistics in 1967. The journey to Mysore for his first-class Master’s in Statistics was the beginning of his achievements. He stood first not only in Statistics but also in the Faculty of Science in 1969 winning the Maharaja’s College Centenary Gold Medal and the Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar Gold Medal. This provided the right impetus and ignited the desire in Raghavendra to realize his lifetime mission and capabilities.

Raghavendra’s first assignment started in August 1969 with the Statistics Discipline of Indian Plywood Industries Training and Research Institute (formerly, Indian Plywood Industries Research Institute). This experience established one distinguishable aspect of Raghavendra – to take up real-life problems and deliver implementable solutions naturally leading him into the field of Operations Research and its applications which became mainstream of his later professional endeavors. He presented himself in a win-win combination of Operations Research and Statistics.

The Commonwealth Scholarship awarded in 1977 enabled him to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia, Canada and though opportunities were knocking at his doors in Canada, he decided to return to India with a desire to serve his country and people. After his return, he joined the Tata Consultancy Services at Bombay. The hitherto subdued academic spark and, his inherent desire to work independently and to motivate others brought him to the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in July 1984, where he spent the rest of his lifetime – one, too short for the promises that he held.