Dr. Venkat Venkateswaran, 69, of Champaign passed away on Friday, May 21, 2021. He was a Clinical Associate Professor of Business Administration, and the Director of the Supply Chain Corporate Affiliates Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Venkat was born in Chennai, India. He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1978, he obtained a master's in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate in operations research from Case Western Reserve University. He was a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories for twenty years, before returning to academia in 2005. He held positions at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Georgia Institute of Technology before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He spent many summers at the Air Force Research Laboratories in Rome, NY as a visiting faculty member.
Apart from his passion for teaching and research, Venkat enjoyed traveling, flying a glider plane and reading extensively. Above all, he loved spending time with his family.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Sakuntala and O.V. Subramanian of Chennai, India.
Venkat is survived by his wife, Uma; his daughter, Vidya (Stephen Curran) of Princeton, NJ; his son, Mani of Normal, IL; his granddaughter, Maya Curran; and his brother, Shankar (Meena) Venkatasubramanian. He will be greatly missed.
Visitation will be from 8 to 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 26 at Owens Funeral Home, 101 North Elm Street, Champaign, with a memorial service from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. A larger celebration of life will be held at a later date in Princeton, NJ.
The family requests no flowers; instead, remembrances can be sent to the Gies Scholarship Fund at the University of Illinois Foundation, P.O. Box 734500, Chicago, IL 60673-4500, or donate online at uif.uillinois.edu. Please indicate this gift is in memory of Venkat Venkateswaran and for the Gies Scholarship Fund.
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