Govind Shrikrishna Mudholkar

Govind Shrikrishna Mudholkar died peacefully at home on May 17, 2024, attended by his son Ashok and daughter-in-law Kendra, beloved dog Yeti, and feline companions Invader and Jones. His generous heart, twinkly eyes, and mellifluous voice and laugh are missed.

Govind was born January 5, 1934 in Aurangabad to Shrikrishna Shrinivas Mudholkar and Saraswati Panse. He was one of thirteen children, including Acka, Arun, Baby, Dada, Indumati, Iriwati, Khunda, Madhumalati, Malu, Mina, Shaku, and Vatsala. He left Pune, India, in 1960 to study Statistics in Chapel Hill, NC. It was upon reaching Chapel Hill that he learned of the death of his Mother but had to press ahead with his doctoral work.

Upon completing his studies he thought he would return to Pune, but was courted by Harold Hotelling to come to University of Rochester to “look them over.” He arrived in Rochester later the Summer of 1963 and would stay on in the newly formed Statistics department for the next 55 years. He spoke fondly of his time at the U of R, sitting in his office and welcoming students, taking long lunches in the faculty club and walking around the grounds. He passionately supported his students and saw dozens, of which a third were female, through the completion of their PhDs. Among his students were Kobby Asubonteng, Saria Awadalla, Yogen Chaubey, Shande Chen, Mohan Fatek, E. Olusegun George, Lesley Georger, Yu Han, Alan Hutson, Georgia Kohlia, James Kost, Lars Larsson, Tom (Ching-Chuong) Lin, Carol Marchetti, Michael McDermott, Bill Mietlowski, Rajeshwari Natarajan, Kartik Patel, Perla Subbaiah, Deo Kumar Srivastava, Phillip Smethurst, Lili Tian, Madhusudan Trivedi, Hongyue "Cookie" Wang, Greg Wilding, Ziji Yu, and Xiao Zhang.

Govind married Anne Poythress in the summer of 1969 in Berkeley and together they had two sons, Ashok and Anil. Anne and Govind separated in 1979 and divorced some years later. Govind did not remarry. 

Towards the end of his career, Govind became excited about work he was doing on the mode-centric M-Gaussian distribution; his students Saria Awadalla and Ziji Yu assisted him with this work. Ziji was his last PhD student and a delight to work with. Upon his retirement Ziji made a plaque with quotes from many of his students over the decades. Many of his students remained close, among them Lars Larsson and his wife Guðbjörg, Ziji Yu, and Kartik Patel.

In 2014, Anne, Ashok, Anil, and their families all joined Govind for a reunion in Rochester. He loved a good view and enjoyed taking them to Woodcliff Resort brunch. He was amused and pleased to show off the chocolate fountain to his grandchildren.

In 2016 he moved to Seattle to live close to his son Ashok, who began to manage his care and look after him. For many years Ashok’s son-in law Morgan and niece Sophia assisted with Govind’s care. Being with family at the end of his life was very important to Govind. 

Children were a special delight to Govind. He drew a lot of enjoyment from spending time with and hearing about his grandchildren, Max Moonpenny, Sequin, and Maxwell. Happily he lived to see the birth of his first great grandchild Azalea, who was his good buddy. Azalea liked to sit with Govind, watch ballets, and eat cookies. 

Govind is survived by Anne, his sons Anil and Ashok, their spouses Cyndi Elliot and Kendra Wight, respectively, his grandchildren Maxwell, Sequin, Max Moonpenny and her spouse Morgan, and his great granddaughter Azalea.