ABOUT ME
LILY
A CELEBRATION OF HER LIFE
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Read the Obituary from Bhavana Mathematics Magazine with recollections of Lily from her friends, family and colleagues.
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Entry from Town Topics, 20th February 2019
Lalitha Harish-Chandra, known as Lily, passed away at home on Thursday, January 24, 2019.
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Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1934, Lily spent most of her childhood in Bangalore, India with her Polish mother and Indian father. Lily’s father was an agricultural scientist; her mother, after earning a doctoral degree in child psychology, became a teacher of French, German and Russian at the Indian Institute of Science. When her family spent time in Italy, Lily added Italian to her language repertoire that already included English, French and Hindi. In 1939
Lily and her mother were returning to India from Italy by ship on the day England declared war on Germany. Her father came home six months later after a long eastward journey by land, and Lily loved hearing stories of his adventures on this desert trip during her childhood.
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One of Lily’s mother’s students, twenty-two year-old Harish Chandra, lodged in her family’s house and first met Lily when she was eleven years old. Seven years later the couple were married in Mysore; they then moved to the U.S. where Harish had a faculty position in the mathematics department at Columbia University. Subsequently Lily earned a B.S. in zoology from Barnard College and later she studied Linguistics at Columbia. Their two daughters were born in New York City. In 1963 Harish was offered a position at the Institute for Advanced Study and the family moved to Princeton. They spent many happy years here. After a long illness, Harish passed away in 1983.
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During the more than fifty years that she lived in Princeton, Lily was an active participant in the town’s community life. As a faculty wife, a parent, a coworker and later as a senior resident, she always welcomed newcomers and maintained ties to those she had known for many years. After her children left home, Lily joined the staff of the International Finance Section of Princeton University’s Department of Economics where she worked for eleven years. Prior to this, she was a volunteer at Princeton’s Professional Roster; here Lily took a special interest in women who were returning to work outside the home after raising children. For many years Lily also served on the boards of Crossroads Nursery School and of Princeton Community Housing.
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1n 2012 Lily moved to Windrows. She always wanted to maintain her independence, an aspect of life in the U.S. that she particularly liked. Amiable, inclusive, gracious, and articulate, Lily was a dear friend worth having. Lily will be dearly missed by many. She is survived by daughters Premala of Highland Park, NJ, Devaki of Berkeley, CA, and four grandchildren.
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A celebration of Lily’s life will be held on February 23, 2019 at 3:30 p.m. at the Institute of Advanced Study, 1 Einstein Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540, and all who knew and loved Lily are most welcome. Her family suggests that donations in Lily’s memory may be given to the following organizations: Doctors Without Borders, Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, Tunnel to Towers Foundation, and Women for Women International.
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Links:
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Shanti Bhavan Children's Project
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