Alankar Gupta
Alankar Gupta passed away unexpectedly on February 24, 2024, at 84 years old, surrounded by his loving wife and children. He had been fighting leukemia lymphoma.
Alankar (Alan to many) was born in 1940 in the City of Lahore, British India. He was the second child and first son of Dr. Maha Nand and Mrs. Manjari Devi Gupta. In his early childhood he moved frequently among different regions of India as his father was a medical doctor with the British Army. In 1947 as India secured its independence from Britian, he and his family were living in what became the new nation of Pakistan. Independence from Great Britian brought the Partition of India, breaking the nation into two countries based on religions: India primarily for Hindu people and Pakistan primarily for Muslims. Lahore, where Alankar was living, ended up on the Pakistan side of the newly drawn boundary. Because his family was Hindu they were no longer welcome in Lahore and quickly found it was not safe to stay in their home. With their home set ablaze and lives in mortal danger, Alankar and his family fled taking a train into India. Overnight, Alankar became one of millions of refugees.
After years of depending on the kindness of friends and family in India, Alankar’s parents’ fortunes improved. His father was hired to a position with the Indian government in public health and Alankar was sent to the Col. Brown Cambridge School, a boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayas in the town of Dehradun. He completed high school there at the age of 16. Though there were thoughts of a military career, his parents encouraged him to pursue further education. He graduated from the University of New Delhi with a Bachelor of Science degree, and thereafter left India for London where he studied at the University of London and completed a degree in aeronautical engineering. After his time in England, he then crossed the Atlantic to Montreal, Canada and studied at McGill University completing a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering.
In Montreal, Alankar met Louise Catherine Hollmann. He would say it was love at first sight. They wed in 1966 and in 1967 moved across North America to Seattle where he took a job with the Boeing Company. In their years before children (and later after their children graduated high school) they traveled the world seeing India, Thailand and many countries in Europe. Alankar loved seeing the world and experiencing different cultures, foods and sights.
Alankar worked with Boeing for 48 years retiring in 2015 at the age of 75. His time at Boeing included work on both the commercial aircraft and military aircraft sides. Over his time at Boeing he was granted 18 patents. He ended his career assisting the Federal Aviation Administration with aircraft certifications. He was selected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Inventor of the Year at Boeing and received many other technical awards for his work. He loved his work and enjoyed the people he worked with.
Alan and Louise raised two children, Ramon Raj and Maya Rani, with both of whom he had the greatest pride. As a father he was always present, always encouraging and always seeking the best for his children. He was consistent in taking time to have fun as a family, particularly on weekends and with yearly vacations to Cannon Beach, Oregon. When his children were young, he loved spending time wandering the Woodland Park Zoo and Arboretum in Seattle, taking beach walks around the Puget Sound, and becoming an ace at making drip sand trees for Ramon and Maya’s sandcastles. Later as his children got older, he served as a dedicated guide on visits to India to meet family and see his homeland. In his free time, he loved to cook and garden (his flowers were the envy of the neighborhood) and took time for the theater and many hikes with long-standing friends he and Louise had first met through Renton First United Methodist Church and later John Knox Presbyterian Church.
After over 50 years in Seattle, he and Louise moved to the Samarkand Retirement Community in Santa Barbara, California for a change in weather and to be closer to his son, Ramon, and Ramon’s wife Annie and his grandchildren Caleb (15) and Peter (12). At Samarkand, Alankar quickly built new friendships, began helping with volunteer opportunities, and developed a new passion for sports, particularly those you might play on a cruise ship: cornhole, billiards and table tennis. To the surprise of his children and inspiration to his grandchildren, he was quite good at these games winning crowns, giant medals and many accolades.
Alankar was preceded in death by his sister Gayatri Devi Govindarajulu and brother Vijay Bhushan Gupta. He is survived by his wife, Louise Catherine, of over 58 years, son Ramon Raj (wife Annie and grandsons Caleb Jerome and Peter Alan) who live in Santa Barbara, daughter Maya Rani (husband Jim Muller) who live in Port Townsend, Washington, and two younger sisters Dr. Ratna P. Gupta who resides in Lucknow, India, and Priya Darshini Gupta who resides in California. Alankar will be dearly missed.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Alankar’s honor to the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission. A memorial service for Alankar will be held at Santa Barbara Community Church. For more information feel free to reach out to the family. Thank you.