Malaipatty Rangaswami

Rangaswami, Malaipatty Ramaswami

Malaipatty Ramaswami Rangaswami (M.R.) passed away on April 5, 2025 in Washington, DC, with family and love by his side.

M.R. was born in India on June 8, 1934, the youngest of 8 children. While none of his siblings attended college due to the family's financial hardship, they and his beloved mother collectively made sure M.R. could. M.R. attended P.S.G. College of Technology, graduating in 1957 with a degree in civil engineering, and later got a master's in architecture from Hammersmith College in London.

In 1965, he applied on a whim to a job posting for an architectural firm in Burlington, Vermont, which, much to his surprise, he got. He had to go back to India and stay for 3 months to obtain a U.S. visa - which at the time was an annoyance but turned out to be fate. While waiting for his visa, mutual friends introduced to him to Dr. Ranganayaki Subbiah, a tiny, beautiful, intense doctor who was neither interested in marrying nor ever leaving her family and medical practice in India. In a testament to his charisma and charm, they were married on March 24, 1966, and were a few weeks away from celebrating their 50th anniversary when she died in 2016.

The couple soon moved to Vermont, and later moved to Albany, New York before finally settling and raising their family in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to architecture, M.R. dabbled in numerous other explicable and inexplicable ventures, and through a combination of hard work and the patient support of his wife, he knitted together a successful life. In his later years, he was active in establishing and volunteering at the Hindu Temple of Kentucky and the local Sai prayer group. In 2009, he and his wife moved to Washington D.C. to live with his daughter's family.

M.R. will be missed by his son Bala Chandar (Regina) and daughter Vijaya Lakshmi (Atul Pathiyal), six grandchildren (Vijaya (Matt Lang), Adya (Bobby Soto), and Deven Rangaswami, and Arjun, Ashwin, and Aditya Pathiyal), great grandchild (George Kavi), his sister-in-law (Mangayama), beloved nieces, nephews and their children, including Shanti Alagirisamy, Alargirisamy Ayyalusamy and their son, Vijay Alagirisamy, and caregiving angels Sonia Legore and Alejandra Ruiz.

Services were held on Saturday, April 12, at 11:00 a.m. at Joseph Gawler's Sons in Washington, D.C. and can be livestreamed under M.R.'s page on the Gawler's website. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research under M.R.'s tribute page.