Dr. Janardan Mahadeo Kulkarni

With profound sadness and a now a hole in my heart, we lost a great man, my father, a grandfather and genuine friend to countless people.

Dr. Janardan Mahadeo Kulkarni, born on November 25, 1932 to Mahadeo and Parvatibai Kulkarni, in Thane, India—a suburb of Mumbai—passed away after a remarkable 92 years. The second youngest of seven children, Dr. Kulkarni pursued academic excellence early, graduating from Bombay University with a PhD in Mathematics and working at The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in South Mumbai’s Nariman Point from 1951 to 1967.

On February 13, 1966, he married Sudha Shivram Paradkar in Girgau, Mumbai—secretly his love, who worked alongside him at TIFR.

In September 1967, Dr. Kulkarni immigrated to the United States to earn a second PhD in Library Science from Syracuse University in New York. He began a new chapter at SUNY Cortland, then in 1975 accepted a position with the University of Louisville. He and his wife Sudha moved their family to Kentucky, where he served as a professor for 34 years and helped raise his family.

In Louisville, Dr. Kulkarni and Sudha became cornerstones of the Indian American community. He and Sudha hosted countless Indian immigrants in their home, helping families and students adjust to life in the United States and Kentucky. For decades, Dr. Kulkarni was also the only Hindu Priest in Kentucky, traveling to hundreds of homes to perform religious ceremonies, weddings, last rites, and births. He was instrumental in founding the Hindu Temple of Kentucky and remained actively involved with the community, performing his final major religious ceremony just a month ago at age 92—with 75 in attendance, marking his 82nd annual Ganesh Chaturthi.

He will be sorely missed for his genuine kindness, selflessness, discipline, and love of life. Dr. Kulkarni cherished his family, friends, Louisville, the University, his Louisville Cardinal basketball teams, Major League Baseball—especially the Yankees—and approached life with true zest.

To those who are mourning his passing, dad would simply say “FOOT!!” and “HUT!!”—his way of saying stop crying and whining and get on with loving and enjoying life!

Dr. Kulkarni’s legacy of compassion, scholarship, and joyful living touches generations.