Dr Mathew Thekkekarottu Joseph (1952-2021)

 

Prof TJ Mathew, beloved teacher of thousands, well-known academic and researcher, and a great collaborator, passed away on Tuesday, 29-June-2021. His passing away is a great loss to the Pillai Group of Institutions, thousands of SNDT University Alumni and to colleagues like me.

Dr Mathew was born in Moozhoor, a small village in Kottayam Taluk in Kerala, in a Roman Catholic Family. It is a farming family. He has two brothers and four sisters. One of the brothers works in Pune. The others are in the native place. Moozhoor is big enough to have a Pin code  686503, but not an entry in the list of Kerala villages. It is about 95 KM south of the Kochi Airport. The road passes through Pala, a well-maintained small town 14 KM north of Moozhoor. The whole area has benefitted tremendously from the educational efforts of the churches, along with the Kerala tradition of respecting literacy and education. For instance, Pala has a literacy rate of 98.5%, and female literacy is 97.8%.  No wonder that the region has produced leading educationists as well.

Mathew had an MSc in applied mathematics when I had met him in the early eighties. He was working at the SNDT University Computer Center. All his life, he lived for the institutions he worked for. He had tremendous empathy for students and gave them lots of time and attention. No wonder that every Vice Chancellor he worked with at SNDT saw his potential. Ms. Parvati Rajan was another colleague at SNDT, who worked a lot for the development of computer science and technology activities at SNDT. I was at the National Centre for Software technology (NCST) which had acquired a small campus in Juhu in 1984-85, near the SNDT University Campus. There was mutual interest in cooperation and we started working together. Dr Jyothi Trivedi, the then Vice-Chancellor, clearly defined her priority - faculty development. NCST welcomed Parvati Rajan and TJ Mathew to work towards their PhDs, sharing our work environment and research interests. I had the privilege of being the thesis advisor for them. Parvati worked in educational technology and Mathew in computational complexity.

Mathew had found time and energy in the middle of all this to study for a Master’s degree in Financial Management at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS).

Over the years, SNDT decided to create a Computer Science Department and recruit students. I was invited to be on the Senate at some stage. Meanwhile, another faculty member at SNDT, Dr Vasudha Kamat, was serving as the head of another activity which was growing fast – educational technology. She came up with the idea of an MCA in educational technology. I was very happy to support this initiative in the Senate. Prof. Kamalini Bhansali was the successor to Dr Trivedi as VC. She was followed by Dr Suma Chitnis and later by Dr Mariamma Varghese. I and my colleagues at NCST continued to work with SNDT on areas of mutual interest. Dr SP Mudur co-authored a number of papers with faculty colleagues from SNDT.

Over the years, Dr Mathew had carried major responsibilities:

      He served as the Head of the Department, Computer Science, at SNDT during     1985 to 2001.

  Later, he served as Director and Professor at the Jankidevi Bajaj Institute of   
  Management Studies (JDBIMS) during 2001 – 2017. 

  He also found the time and energy to serve as Principal of the Usha Mittal
  Institute of Technology at SNDT during 2002-2007.

      Overall, Dr Mathew had served SNDT University for 32 years.

On retiring from SNDT, Dr Mathew was not ready to hang up his shingles. The Pillai Group of Institutions, founded by Dr KM Vasudevan Pillai, welcomed him. Dr Mathew moved to Panvel and served as Prof of Computer Engineering and later as Principal of the Pillai HOC College of Engineering Technology at Rasayani, Maharashtra.

Dr Mathew never complained he was short of time. If something was worth doing, he would find the time for it. For instance, he worked on an IT solution for teaching people to write in a script they were learning. Perhaps he did not want even 1.5% of the people in Pala to be illiterate! He was a son of Kerala, a great teacher in Maharashtra and a true Indian in his life.

Once, when I visited him at the JDBIMS he showed me around a small patch of herbal garden he was cultivating in front of the institute.

Another cause close to his heart was the annual Mumbai Marathon, which raised funds for child welfare activities through Childline. He has been running the race every year since 2009. He ran the half marathon in later years. The event held in Jan 2020 gave him some disappointment as he could not complete it. He is not, however, one to give up. This year’s race was to have been run in April 2021, but had to be postponed indefinitely due to Covid. His website is up-to-date and ready for it, mentioning Covid Relief this year. Visit TMM 2021 - Fundraiser Page - Dr. Mathew T.J (unitedwaymumbai.org)

Run the race in his memory, if you can!    

 

Srinivasan Ramani