Prof. Raju Varghese was a person of good heart, after the Sacred Heart, where, I believe, he began his career as an academic. He was spotted and brought to the Sacred Heart campus, by its visionary founder Rev Fr Francis Sales, who had the knack of identifying individuals of academic excellence and bringing them into the Sacred Heart fold. When the MSW programme began in the department of Social Work in 1962, he was inducted, and not long after the the programme was shifted to the campus at Rajagiri (1966?), Kalamassery, he had left the campus and had gone to the US - sometime around 1966.
Prof. Raju had his MSW from Madras School of Social Work and another MSW from the University of Pennisylvania. He got his Ph D in Education (EdD) from the Temple University and MPH from John Hopkins University.
Though he had a very short stint with the Department of Social Work, Sacred Heart College, he felt that he owed it to Rajagiri, which had assumed the Social Work heritage of Sacred Heart, and the Rajagiri leaders adopted him as their foster father in building a Social Work bridge across the cultures. When Rajagiri was struggling to establish some such tie-ups in management under the initiative of Prof. Athappally of Western Michigan University, embraced gladly by the Principal Rev. Fr Alex, it was Prof. Raju Varghese, who said that why we didn't have a tie up with Maryland University where he was a Professor, and he guided both the sides through the formalities in a matter of a couple of months, and what had been lagging over almost 2 years, happened in the span of a year, with students and faculty starting to move in both the directions - opening a very novel dimension in higher education in India, very specially in Kerala.
He counselled, guided and brought several batches of faculty and students, and even interested individuals, under that banner. And thanks to the hint from Fr. Alex, perhaps, I was given an opportunity to be a visiting faculty member at the School of Social Work, University of Maryland, Baltimore, in 2001. The rest of the vibrant partnerships Rajagiri possesses now were more or less a repetition of the model, with some improvisations here and there, except that with Rev. Fr. Saju bringing in a vital dimension of research into it.
He had been a shelter to the students and teachers visiting from Rajagiri and SH, and his home was a home for them all in the United States.
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I could see the grip slipping away from him, and hence I made it a point that in spite of my lack of time, I would visit him this time I was in the US. I am glad that I did, that in spite of the late hour, we did spend some happy time, reminiscing about the good things of the old.
He was a conventional believer - a church follower, and tried to support his church to the best of his ability - perhaps, building more than one church in Maryland under his patronage and leadership. Aunt Molly (Dr Sarah Korah), took care of him so that he was put to the least trouble; and in the easy passing out of Prof. Raju, at least she is blessed to see that he did not have the pain of languishing in bed in prolonged suffering. At 88, Raju sir seems to have lived his life full, with a very long academic career in professional social work, having been a support and mentor to many, with his three children (Sanjeev, Suja and Saji) doing well in their own fields and being around when needed, and his beloved wife and all the children being around in prayer to pass him over to the life beyond the curtain!!
If I read him well, he was all set to establish endowments for academic programmes both at Rajagiri and, thanks to my prompting, at Sacred Heart as well. I hope these will happen and perpetuate his memory for posterity.
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