Jitendra P. Agrawal

1938 - 2025

Jitendra P. Agrawal, a resident of Chestertown, MD, passed away on December 13, 2025, at the age of 87. He was a retired DuPont Company research chemist.

Born into a Hindu family in Varanasi, India, in 1938, he became homeless in 1943 and lived with his mother and six siblings in extremely poor conditions. From 1943 to 1947, between the ages of 5 and 9, he witnessed Mahatma Gandhi's civil disobedience movement, culminating in India's freedom from British rule. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in chemistry in 1959. He later worked for the Indian Atomic Energy program and at Columbia University in New York, where he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1967. From 1967 to 1969, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow for the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa.

Dr. Agrawal worked for the DuPont Company for the next 30 years. During this period, he obtained an M.Ch.E. degree from the University of Delaware while attending night and weekend classes. In 1985, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

At DuPont, Dr. Agrawal's work spanned a wide range of industrial chemicals. Notable contributions included key steps in the commercialization of DuPont hollow fiber reverse osmosis modules for seawater desalination. At the Memphis plant, he made significant contributions to the manufacture of hydrogen cyanide, a basic chemical used in the production of nylon, fluorescent light fixtures, and the recovery of gold and platinum from ores. In 1993, he and a fellow DuPont chemist were jointly awarded a U.S. patent for their work advancing hydrogen cyanide manufacturing technology. He retired from DuPont in 2000 following a major corporate layoff.

He briefly taught mathematics at Kent County High School in 2001 and taught a semester of mathematics at Washington College in 2003. He also spoke on Indian philosophy, Hinduism, and Buddhism at Unitarian churches and at Washington College. In his lectures, Dr. Agrawal expounded on the four principal pillars of Indian philosophy: impermanence, detachment, equanimity, and ahimsa (nonviolence), using the acronym I.D.E.A.

In February 2013, Dr. Agrawal helped Washington College celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, who introduced America to Indian philosophy through his famous speech delivered in Chicago in 1893 at the first Parliament of Religions.

J.P. is survived by his wife, Nadine M. Gentile; stepchildren Julia Jensen, Robert Wright of Memphis, TN, and Catharine Benner of Oceanside, CA; four grandchildren, Evan, Owen, Gabriel, and Lina; and his son, Jai Prakash Agrawal of Philadelphia, PA.

No funeral service is planned. His body will be cremated, and a small amount of ashes will be scattered over the holy Ganges River in Varanasi, India. A gathering of friends will be held later this spring.

Dr. Agrawal salutes the United States, Columbia University, and the DuPont Company for nearly 65 years of a good life. Special thanks are extended to the Greater Chestertown community for accepting him as one of their own during the final years of his life.