Reverend Mahesh R. Giri

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Lalita, and his daughters-Sharon and Dawn, and grandchildren: Heather, Rachel, and Ravikesh, all residents of Shoreline, WA. He is also survived by his sister Sumintra Singh of Modesto, California, and James Giri of Seattle, Washington.

Rev. Giri studied at Alan Walker Mission school in Sydney, Australia and the Davuilevu Theological College in Fiji. He was ordained in the Methodist church in Suva, Fiji in 1970. He served as a minister in the towns of Lautoka, Raki Raki, Nausori, Sigatoka,and Ba, in Fiji before migrating to North America in 1975 He continued his studies at the University of Washington and obtained a bachelors degree in Comparative Literature in 1981.

He served as a United Methodist minister in the following churches: Grace United Methodist, Skyway United Methodist, Greenlake United Methodist, and Shoreline United Methodist. He retired in 2006, but was asked to be interim minister for almost 2 years at Blaine Northwest Community Church, and he stayed active as a Chaplin in hospitals and prisons. He also served as a bilingual interpreter for the King County Court for Hindi and Fijian languages.

Over the years, he and his wife Lalita kept active with the Fiji-Australia-New Zealand South Pacific

Methodist Fellowship and took part in mission work. He was instrumental in starting the South East Asian and Fijian Fellowship at the Shoreline United Methodist church. After retirement, he enrolled to pursue his doctoral degree from San Francisco School of Theology in California, focusing his studies on the Dalits (untouchables in India). However, due to health reasons he was unable to complete his studies.

Reverend Mahesh Giri was much loved by all who knew him and will be missed. May his soul rest in peace.