Washington: Dr Kamal D Verma, an acclaimed scholar of South Asian literature, died of natural causes this week here in the American capital. He would have turned 92 in April.
Professor Verma taught for 42 years at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ) in Pennsylvania. After retirement, he continued to serve as Professor Emeritus and an advisor to the University President, focusing on recruiting more diverse faculty and students from South Asia.
He was also one of the founding members of the South Asian Review and the South Asian Literary Association - two nationally acclaimed scholarly efforts aimed to promote Indian and other South Asian writers and ideas.
Dr Jem Spectar, President of UPJ, called Dr Verma “a brilliant scholar, an exceptional teacher and guide, a highly respected colleague, and a dear friend”.
“His students speak of a great intellect: a professor who deepened their critical thinking, analytical, and writing skills, someone who deepened their understanding of our world, and someone whose classes prepared them for lifelong success,” Spectar said.
Dr Verma was born in 1932 in Punjab, India. He was the eldest child in a large family, and the first member of his extended family to attend college. He completed his BA from DAV College, Jalandhar, in 1951, followed by a BA in teaching from Agra University in 1953 and an MA in English from Panjab University in 1958.
In India, he became the principal of a teacher’s college in Punjab where he served until 1963, when he departed for the United States on a Ford Foundation Fellowship to obtain his Specialist in Education degree at the University of Northern Iowa. He then pursued further professional studies in literature, leading to his PhD from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.
Dr Verma, his wife Savitri, also a teacher and head of a women’s college in India, and their five children settled in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1971. They were the first Indian-American family to move to the area.