Harsh Pittie, in memoriam
My friend Harsh V. Pittie, passed away suddenly on Monday, January 16, 2012.
Harsh was born January 3, 1944, educated during long walks with his father, later at George School, Swarthmore, and Princeton, where he received his Ph.D in mathematics. He held a professorship at the University of Georgia, which he later renounced in order to care for his father in Mumbai during the last years of his life. After his father’s death, he moved to New York City. He loved to go to the ballet, to work crossword puzzles, and of course, to do mathematics. Harsh is survived by his sister, Nirja Kamani, and her two daughters, Anandita and Janhavi, all of Mumbai, India.
Harsh’s friends remember him for his humor, quick wit and brilliant intelligence. We regret his passing.
Posted on January 25, 2012, in Uncategorized and tagged friend, harsh pittie, mathematician, mathematics, Mumbai, obituary, princeton. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
Harsh was a great friend of mine since his Univ of Georgia years. I live in Atlanta, and we had mutual friends. We travelled together a number of times in Europe — London, Italy, and especially France where we had glorious dinners and wine together at some of the grand restaurants. I also saw him from time to time in New York, with my German friend Alex Timmer, whom he liked very much. A delightful gentleman that I’ll miss very much.
Ted George
tgeorge5@cs.com
Harsha was a classmate of mine at George School. We were in the science sequence together–about 15 of us for 3 very intense years of study. It was a pretty smart group, but there were 3 of my classmates who were simply smarter. Harsha pretty much always knew the answers and none of us, most especially Harsha, were surprised by this. At one point I realized he actually understood the advanced math that I was simply trying to survive.
His death is certainly a blow. I was especially looking forward to seeing him at our 50th reunion this spring.
He will be sorely missed.
I never met Harsh Pittie, but I carried around his book on characteristic classes of foliations for most of my grad school years. There will surely be many mathematicians to come who, like me, will “meet” Harsh only through his work, but still be the better for it.