Satyanarayana Moolky Shenoy

With heavy hearts, we inform you that our father Sathyanarayan (Satya) Shenoy passed away peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by his family, on the Wednesday, August 23, 2017 at 1:40 p.m. at Hospice Wellington, in Guelph. He was 91 years old. Predeceased by his parents Raghavendra & Leelavathi Shenoy, sister Kasturi Nayak, wife Sharada Shenoy and brother Vittaldas Shenoy. He is survived by his sister Geeta Mallya and children; Padma Kamath (Dr. Markad Kamath), Anupama Rao (Mr. Shashidhar Rao), Surekha Shenoy (Dr. Revi Kizhatil), Shraddha Prabhu (Mr. Chandrakant Prabhu), son Srinivas Shenoy (Mrs. Shalaka Shenoy) and nine grandchildren; Anand (Mrs. Archana Kamath); Gautam Kamath; Nikhil Rao; Anila Rao; Ankita Kizhatil; Anoosha Kizhatil; Nikita Prabhu; Natasha Prabhu and Aayush Shenoy.

Born on April 12, 1926 in Puttur, Karnataka, India, he was the eldest of 4 children. He joined Indian army as a 19 year old and as part of his education in the military, did Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME). His 28 years of service in the military earned him assignments all over India: NEFA (North East Frontier Agency), Ranchi, Ahmednagar, Baroda, and Secunderabad, before he retired as a Subedar. He participated in World War II, Indo-China war (1962); Indo-Pak wars (1965 & 1971) earning him the King George and Indian Independence medals for his service. As part of his duties in the army, he trained military officers on the finer aspects of running battle tanks and fixing them as well as on electronics and RADAR. He earned several accolades from his senior officers for his diligence and meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of his professional duties.

Satya married a beautiful and charming young woman, Sharada in May, 1958 and they started their married life in Ranchi, India. Soon they had five loving children and he and his family moved together during each assignment. Satya retired from the Indian army in 1973 and settled in Puttur, Karnataka along with his family at a still young age of 48. As an ex-serviceman he tried his hand at other business ventures like running an oil agency, a transport truck, and running a grocery store, until he finally settled into a second career in accounting and banking in Puttur and Mangalore, Karnataka. His property in Puttur had a large piece of land. He had a green thumb and soon his handcrafted home garden yielded abundance of mangoes, jackfruit, Sapota (chickoo), pineapple, bananas, Coconuts, cashew, star fruit, custard apple, etc. and many vegetables, which he distributed generously to his friends and family.

As their children left home, as empty nesters they spent their time visiting friends and their children and grandchildren. After the sudden death of his wife Sharada in 2008, Satya relocated to Canada to live with his daughter & their family in Cambridge, Ontario. He was quick to settle in and felt at home in his garden (lovingly named “Grandpa’s Garden”) and soon had vegetables & flowers growing in abundance. He believed in physical fitness and was known by all his neighbours for his daily walks (twice) and practicing yoga every day. He travelled all over eastern Canada and dared to go rafting on the Grand River and hiking the Niagara Trails. Forever young at heart, he enjoyed partying with friends and having his famous Johnny Walker Black Label. He was not deterred by his first stroke in 2013 and recovered completely and even made a trip to India. His second stroke in 2015 reduced his physical mobility considerably.

Because of Satya’s unremitting passion for knowledge, his children studied and achieved career successes in technology, finance, manufacturing, chemical engineering and philosophy. In addition, he quietly nudged his grandchildren to study hard and was proud to extol his grand children’s successes in information technology, electronic gaming, packaging engineering, pharmaceuticals, banking, professional management, hotel management, industrial engineering and advanced research in computer science.

Satya was a mild mannered, jovial person, well-liked by all. While in Canada he had become the universal grandpa to all youngsters and they lovingly called him “Ajja” or Grandpa in Konkani language. Satya was humble and had never uttered a negative word in his life. He had an excellent memory and met other army veterans and a seniors group on a regular basis, while in Canada. He was fluent in Konkani, Hindi, Kannada, English, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu, Malayalam and Tulu. He enjoyed watching Asian Television Network, while staying in Cambridge. He had an inquisitive mind and he kept up to date with cricket scores, and politics in India & Canada.

His family and friends miss him immensely and will always remember him as the sweet, gentle and loving person that he was.

Visitation will take place at the T. Little Funeral Home & Cremation Centre, 223 Main Street, Cambridge, Ontario (519-623-1290) on Sunday, August 27, 2017 from 2 pm to 4 pm, and 7 pm to 9 pm. A private cremation will be held Monday morning at the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Paris, Ontario. As an expression of sympathy, and in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Cambridge Memorial Hospital Foundation (519) 740-4966.