Dipak Sengupta

Dr. Dipak Kumar Sengupta died peacefully of natural causes with his beloved former wife Heather Sengupta at his side at the Hacienda in Georgetown, Texas early in the morning of Dec. 19, 2024. He was 90.

Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1934, he spent the fading twilight of the British Empire in the jungles of Bangladesh where he recalled swinging from vines near a pond and listening to Bengal tigers rumbling balmy nights with their roars. His father, a physician, moved the family to the countryside to provide care to villagers, a move the younger Dr. Sengupta would mirror years later, on the other side of the world.

He was a young boy during India's fight for independence. Refugeed during Partition, the violence of the era haunted him throughout his life.

Back in Calcutta, he attended university, then medical school where he excelled in his studies, earning a gold medal in pharmacology despite a habit of skipping practice exams to play ping pong with his friends.

Early independence Calcutta was a wild place to study medicine. The young doctor and a friend once took body parts from the lab home for a late night study session and woke up to police outside their apartment investigating discarded limbs. Sometimes he learned on the job. One time he botched a prenuptial circumcision on a man named Bhagavad and then had to dodge "God" when he returned for follow up care. Later in life, he'd repeat these stories with an impish glint in his eye.

He arrived in the U.S. in 1965, joining a medical program at the University of Canton in Ohio the same year Congress loosened restrictions on immigration from the subcontinent. He met his best friend and loyal lifelong companion Heather Sengupta a few years later, when he traveled to the United Kingdom for certification by the Royal College of Surgeons, and did a fellowship at a hospital in Cheltenham where she worked as a nurse.

The young couple's theme song was Frank Sinatra's "My Way," which is fitting because they carved an unconventional path. In 1970, they married and moved to the U.S. with no family in tow and just a single suitcase between them.

After completing a medical residency in St. Louis, Missouri, where his two daughters were born, Dr. Sengupta took a job as a general surgeon in the tiny community of Archbold in Northwestern Ohio. For the next 27 years he worked long hours, sacrificing countless evenings, weekends and holidays as the primary surgeon who practiced at nearby Fulton County Health Center.

He was a meticulous clinician whose brusque bedside manner was offset by his thorough care. He unraveled medical mysteries and caught hidden cancers. He obsessed about his patients' well-being, sometimes calling back to the hospital for rounds while visiting family abroad. By the time he retired in 2001, he had delivered over 1125 babies via Cesarean section.

In retirement, he dabbled in golf, but found his real passion in travel. He took cruises around the world, collecting photographs and memories. When his health declined and he could no longer explore in person, he took to painting, creating rich oceanside views and cityscapes in acrylic. He spent the final few days of his life surrounded by family.

Dr. Dipak Sengupta is survived by his former wife Heather Sengupta, his daughters Anita Sengupta and Deborah Sengupta Stith, his son-in-law Terrence Stith and his grandchildren Neptune and Anjali Stith. If you'd like to honor his memory, the family suggests a donation in his name to your favorite charity or nonprofit organization.