Ambadas Pathak

Dr. Ambadas Pathak, who passed away of natural causes at the age of 89 in Baltimore, Maryland, lived an accomplished life of sacrifice, excellence, service, and generosity. He was born in Bhainsa, a small town in Hyderabad, India-a princely state known for its rich culture and religious tolerance. Ruled by a family of benevolent autocrats, the Nizams, Hyderabad was a seat of refined Urdu culture, and here Ambadas was steeped in the gracious mannerisms and high art ushered in by that dynasty. His Urdu-medium education helped foster in him a profound appreciation of the arts in general, and of Urdu poetry and music in specific.
The youngest of five children, Ambadas was born into a family of Brahmins (Hindu priests), but his father bucked tradition and was for a time a successful businessman. When Ambadas was only 2, however, his father met an untimely death and left their family deeply impoverished. Ambadas and his two elder brothers performed priestly rites to earn meager wages for the family until his eldest brother left school at 16 to enter the workforce and support his mother and siblings. Ambadas was a gifted and motivated student, and at age 12 set himself on the path to becoming a physician-following in the footsteps, aptly enough, of his namesake ancestor, Ambadas Pathak, who had been a physician to the local ruler generations prior.
The younger Ambadas overcame a number of substantial obstacles. After he traveled from his small town to a large city for high school, he paid for his lodging at a student hostel by working as a cook, preparing meals for his fellow students. To these difficult teen years, he later on would attribute his life-long aversion to cooking. Yet, his early adversity hardened his determination. He stood first in the state in his final examinations after high school and won admission first to City College and then to Osmania Medical College of Hyderabad. With no family wealth, Ambadas relied on scholarship funds, outside work, and the selfless generosity of his elder brothers to fund his education. He never forgot the sacrifices made for him, and always did his best to help others as he was helped.
After his medical training in India, he earned spots in training programs in England and America. In the United States, he became a resident and then chief resident at the Boston Children's Hospital-the academic pediatric center of the Harvard University School of Medicine.
At Harvard, Ambadas found the love of his lives, Dr. Radha Nair. A distinguished pediatrician herself who had been admitted to Boston Children's pediatric oncology program through determined hard work, Radha shared not only Ambadas's passions for music and travel, but also his deeply held values of professional responsibility, family loyalty, and outward facing generosity of time and treasure.
After Ambadas completed his pediatric training and neonatal fellowship, he declined a high-powered career in US academic medicine to return to his motherland and share his state-of-the-art skills. Sadly, he did not find a warm reception in the nonmeritocratic Indian medical community. While his knowledge, expertise and hard work won accolades for his better-connected supervisors, he continued to be offered only entry-level positions.
In the aftermath of those three years in domestic professional exile, he moved with Radha and their toddler daughter, Shubha, to America, eventually landing neonatology positions at the University of Rochester (where his and Radha's son, Sujay, would be born) and at Johns Hopkins University, in affiliation with which Ambadas headed the newborn nurseries at Baltimore City Hospitals (later Francis Scott Key Medical Center and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center).
After 9 years at "City," Ambadas became chief of neonatology at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, growing its neonatal program and modernizing its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit over 11 years. He was named one of GBMC's original 50 Physician Titans of Care for his contributions to that institution.
Over a 40-year career in clinical medicine, Ambadas touched the lives of countless families, colleagues, and trainees with his intelligence, intellectual curiosity, and rigor, in addition to his kindness, soft-spoken strength, and tender bedside manner. He felt a palpable passion for and a thorough joy in teaching, and he modeled a humanistic approach to medicine to generations of trainees who cite his mentorship as shaping their own professional development.
After retiring from clinical medicine in 1999, Ambadas enjoyed a second career in quality assurance and advocacy, serving as a physician advisor at North Arundel and Good Samaritan Hospitals, and serving with distinction as a member of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Association, and as president of the Baltimore County Medical Association.
For all his professional distinctions, Ambadas made his most lasting contributions on the home front, where he and his late wife, Radha, supported numerous family members and friends in their own personal and professional journeys. Any friend or family member of the Pathaks could count on a place to stay, listening ears, and even a financial lifeline during the hardest moments.
Consequently, the sheer number of people who are now thanking Ambadas for getting them where they are today is staggering. He is treasured by many who now feel his departure all the more acutely.
Ambadas loved nothing more than being in the presence of his children, his grandchildren, his extensive extended family, and his many friends, to whom he had deep personal links forged in times of immense difficulty but also great levity and fun. He loved cards, Scrabble, poetry, and music, as well as pizza, beer, baseball, and tennis. He loved traveling with his wife and kids to see the world and visit his widespread network of friends on nearly every continent. He lived a long, full life and he will be deeply, deeply missed-not just by his immediate survivors, his daughter, Shubha Pathak, and her husband, Jim Blenko, of Bethesda, Maryland, and his Baltimore-based son, Sujay Pathak, daughter-in-law, Rachel Pathak, and irrepressible grandchildren, Izzy (age 8) and Bella (age 5), with whom Ambadas shared strong and special bonds since their births; but additionally by family members by blood and by love in Baltimore and beyond.
Funeral Arrangements: Ambadas Pathak, M.D. Funeral and Visitation Info: 9/14/24, 10AM-2PM with service at 11AM and reception to follow. Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/lwlPIZi0028?feature=share Evans Funeral Chapel - Bel Air 3 Newport Drive Forest Hill, MD 21050 In lieu of flowers, donations in Ambadas's honor can be made to Pro Bono Counseling: https://form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/pro-bono-counseling-project/pbc_main_donation via this form, financial gifts may be dedicated to Ambadas's memory and directed to the "CHAI initiative" Program Designation.
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