Obituary of Aditya Kamal

Aditya Kamal, Ph.D., long-time resident of Burlington, MA and Chief Engineer at Waltham based ARCON Corporation passed away on Thursday, April 19th at the age of 92. Adit, as his colleagues called him, continued to defy the odds and worked all the way into his nineties. He had a passion for life and impeccable work ethic. He is survived by his wife Saroj Kamal, daughter Amita Sharma and two sons Pankaj and Arvind Kamal. He loved his family and was eternally proud of his eight grandchildren Raj, Nik, Shaan, Shivani, Jasmyn, Navahn, Akshay and Alex. Born in Kairana, India, Adit received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Benares Hindu University and Masters in Science from Allahabad University. Following that he received a Master’s in Science in In Electronics and Communications Engineering, from the famed Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He emigrated to England in the early 1950s and worked as an engineer at Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company making advancements in Radar Technology. He was offered a position as a communications engineer specializing in Radar and Microwave technology at Thompson CSF (now part of Thales) in France. Following his move to Paris, he enrolled in the Doctorate program at the prestigious Sorbonne (University of Paris) and enrolled in classes to learn French so that he could complete his thesis, written and presented in French, towards a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. Adit went back to India to marry his sweetheart Saroj and start their wedded life in Paris. He passed away just short of their 63nd anniversary. During a conference he received an offer from Purdue University in W. Lafayette, Indiana in the US to join the Electrical Engineering department as a professor. Adit, Saroj and their new baby daughter left Paris to move to the United States. After numerous accomplishments and a son as an addition to the family, he followed his mentor, Dr. Thomas Jones to the University of South Carolina. During his tenure as a professor in engineering, Adit sharpened his skills with industry assignments during the summers with leading organizations such as Bell Labs, Varian Associates, Center for Applied Physics at John Hopkins University and MIT Lincoln Labs. At this point in his career he decided to act on his desire to give back to the old country and decided to move back to India with vision of creating a center of education related to Electronics and Communications Engineering. He landed at University of Roorkee, (India). This university was an engineering school that had been established during the commonwealth era. As the Chairman of this newly created Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, he was successful in raising capital to construct a state of the art education and research facility including a 15-story communications tower that even today, stands as a landmark for the entire university. The department was soon matriculating hundreds of Bachelors, Masters and PhD students. For his contribution to the advancement of technology, he was elected by his peers to be a Fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). University of Roorkee was later inducted into the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) network of schools. After a substantial tenure and the birth of their third child, a son, he left India with the family and took on a visiting assignment at engineering university Ecole Polytechniqe, in Grenoble, France. Following that he moved to Boston as a professor at Boston University and settled to this day in the Boston area. Mid-career he decided to transition from academia to industry and joined defense focused systems engineering company the MITRE Corporation where he worked on air traffic control and communications. He left MITRE to join ARCON Corporation where he became the Chief Engineer. Adit was an avid reader, loved technology and tinkering with the latest devices. Even in his nineties he was proficient with Windows, Microsoft Office, iPhones, iPads and entertainment electronics. His favorite pastime was watching ethnic programming with his wife that consisted of complete seasons of sitcoms and dramatic series. He was quite proud of his collection of recorded shows that started with VCR tapes, then DVDs and finally transitioned to DVRs. In his later years he liked going for walks and avoided the New England weather by walking indoors at the Burlington Mall or at Costco down the street from Arcon. He also kept his French language skills sharp by stopping just about anybody that looked like they spoke French and would strike up a conversation. He loved getting dressed to go to work at ARCON and wore a jacket and tie every day he went to work. The last day he worked at ARCON, at age 92, was the day before he passed away, April 18th. Memorial service followed by cremation will be held at Newton Cemetery, 791 Walnut Street, Newton, MA 02459, on Saturday April 28, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM | Arrangements are by Edward Sullivan Funeral Home, 43 Winn Street, Burlington, MA 01803. (781)272-0050.